The Kings owners, the Maloof family AKA the MaGoofs, said yes with a bit TV event and all the smiles possible. Just months later they said “No” leaving Sacramento upset, fans unhappy and a very pissed off NBA Commissioner , David Stern!

“Sacramento must seize control of its own future,” Johnson said. “We cannot rely on others, or wait for something to come along….”

One sports business consultant, when contacted by The Bee, suggested Johnson would be making a mistake if he dropped his focus now on keeping the Kings. … “Possession is nine-tenths of the law,” said Andy Dolich, a former Oakland A’s executive. “The Kings are Sacramento’s. The River Cats are Sacramento’s, and a shining light nationally as to how a well-run franchise can be extremely successful. “Wouldn’t you counsel him to keep his eye on the prize of the team that he has?”

It is definitely complicated, but Sacramento could keep the Kings and attract a baseball team down the road. I believe that having a stadium here could make the Maloofs change their mind about leaving town…if that is what they want to do.

The negatives: a stadium costs more to build than an arena. Significantly more like close to twice as much as an arena and when you are talking about an arena that would have cost $400 Million to construct….that is a lot of money.

The positives: From the city’s Point of View the season is longer meaning the stadium is in use more meaning more money. The seating would be larger, stadiums seat more people. It could be significantly larger, even in an “intimate” stadium. The railyard is the perfect place for a stadium, maybe even more perfect than an arena. You can do more things with a stadium. Concerts, events…you can attract groups & people that might bypass an arena.

Back in that old-time capsule I really believed it would happen. I’m not a big baseball fan. Haven’t been since the old Dodger days of the late 1950s thru late 1960s. Brooklyn and Los Angeles. Especially Sandy Koufax.

When the A’s farm team the Sacramento River Cats, opened the stadium in West Sacramento and has continued to win big almost every single year that they have been here that dream rekindled.”

Sometimes a whole city has the same dreams.

You can bet there is a lot more to come on this story.

July 9th:

The Oakland A’s go public and advise everyone that they have already told Mayor Johnson they “have no interest” in moving to Sacramento. They do have a big interest in moving to San Jose. But San Francisco has already told the entire world they “will not” allow that to happen. So the A’s want to move South but will not be able to. They don’t want to say in their current Oakland stadium which frankly has been falling apart for twenty years.

I don’t know what will happen. I just know I want my city to have a professional Major League baseball team. I also want my city to have a National Football League team and I know the Raiders need a place to play other than the crumbling stadium in Oakland. And they have told everyone that they have no interest in staying in Oakland. They want to return to Los Angeles.

And I have always believed in that phrase “If you build it they will come!”

He understands the game and he certainly understands the Sacramento basketball team the Sacramento Kings. And most important now he understands how bad the Kings owners, the Maloof family AKA: the MaGoofs, are for Sacramento.

Bretons article today is titled Sacramento stuck with the low-rent Maloofs and unfortunately Breton is right. He wrote an article about one of his visits to the Arena to attend a Kings game last season that was just so insightful it blew my mine.

In that article he made point after point showing how little the Maloofs cared for their current arena, while the rest of us were focused on the new arena. He understood that the new arena would never be built….solely because of the Maloofs. No one else understood this.

Now Breton show us why the Maloofs keep up ownership of the Kings. A team they could easily sell.

They lost the family liquor business. They lost the Palms Casino in Las Vegas. If you follow them on Twitter, you see them hawking super-cool iPhone cases and occasionally promoting little skateboarding events. None of the brothers is married or has children. The Kings are it for them.

So the California capital is stuck with these guys. The happy ending that Sacramento wanted for the Kings – in a downtown arena at the old railyard – is the polar opposite from the happy ending that the Maloofs want.

Their strategy has been clear for years: Wait for an obscene deal to fall into their laps where someone else pays for everything while they control all the profits.

The arena plan Mayor Kevin Johnson had devised, one the NBA fully approved, came with onerous conditions – such as the Maloofs putting money into the building and pledging collateral on their loans.

Oh boy! Those were fighting words for the Maloof boys!”

Again, my friend Breton is NOT a sports guy. He is a very intelligent man who understands the Kings and the owners in ways the rest of us just don’t.

“So why have I been hitting the Maloofs so hard for mismanaging the Kings as they see fit?

Because they are so unbelievably disingenuous. Because they don’t have the guts to simply say that Sacramento doesn’t work for them.

Instead, they carry on the charade of looking for a way to blame Sacramento as a reason for relocating the team.

Don’t listen to their words. Study their actions.”

He points out that the Maloofs continue to say that there was strong “local opposition” to the new arena. And yet, as Breton explains, the group most strongly opposed could not get enough people to sign their petition to put the issue on the ballot!!

Read Breton here and gain some real insight into sports. I salute you sir.

For the Kings the 2012 Off-Season started early, meaning as soon as the regular season ended. Not even a first-round and out Playoff appearance to what used to be a perennial playoff bound team.However, I was tired of adding material to the 2011/2012 Post….so here we go before a new Champion is crowned.

May 24, 2012

Remember back when Maloofs went on a streak of mistreating Sacramento just as the Arena deal was feeling like a deal? Just remember let’s not dwell on it.

And we remember that five of the signatures on that great letter to the NBA from 25 “Sacramento Businessmen” who called for an ownership change for the team did not actually sign the letter.

Only one of those five guys seems to have been truly upset, or disagreed with having his name on the document. Restaurateur Patrick Mulvaneyit seems was in the midst of calling the Kings about working out details of a big party he was doing for them. And the Kings cancelled that party just like they cancelled the Arena. They refused to deal with Mulvaney just like they refused to deal with anything called an “Arena”.

The people who wrote the letter in the final few minutes before the big meeting between the Commissioner and the Maloofs, and then between the Maloofs and the other owners—well, they have apologized to Mulvaney and to the Maloofs for the misunderstanding. What is the Maloofs response? They hired a Private Investigator to look into who signed the letter.

Congratulations also to Assistant GM Abdur-Rahim for receiving his degree from UC Berkeley and teaching us his quiet lesson about the iportance of completeing a task and continuing your education. “If I was still 21, maybe we would celebrate,” Abdur-Rahim said with a deep-throated laugh as he navigated Interstate 80shortly after the two-hour ceremony. “But I’ll probably just go into the office and get back to work.”

“Since moving to Sacramento from Kansas City, the Kings have been in the lottery 16 times in 27 years. They’ve won just once, in 1989 when they selected Louisville’s Pervis Ellison, one of the worst No. 1 picks in league history. If the Kings overcome very long odds – they have just a 7.6 percent chance of winning – they won’t make a similar mistake.Kentucky’s Anthony Davis – a 19-year-old, 6-foot-10, 220-pound power forward – is the consensus top player in this year’s draft.”

Well, here is a good analysisof team needs and draft prospects from Hoops Hype. Always one of the bes to help you sort things out as you look at the places your team might land and ry to figure out who may be drafted and when.

Well, at least they did not drop back to 8th but they Kings really needed and deserved a break. Instead the Hornets get that top pick, the Consensus Anthony Davis unless they make a trade.

Maybe the Kings can trade one of their All-Stars for that pick??

Hoops Hype predictsSF Harrison Barnes, from North Carolina, to Sacramento for that #5 selection. There is a lot of time and Petrie does different kinda things with his picks, plus Sacramento has a few (mediocre) SFs….so I dunno. They predict Barnes to be similar to Glen Rice.

I’m not sure who I would want this year. There were players (especially PGs) I thought would be great at this spot back at the start of the season….now??

Guys like Kendall Marshall, who I still like a lot. But he doesn’t seem to be the next coming of Jason Kidd anymore.

And Damien Lillard who scores well (watch out! He’s the kind of player & PG that Petrie likes.) but really isn’t a PG, and we had one of those the last few years that we finally moved to SF (although he would really be a better SG).

I don’t see any of the PFs dropping to the Kings. Or Gilchrist. I think the Top 4 are pretty much set, although after #1 no one has a lock here position-wise. Each will go high, probably Top 5, but…..

But what the team needs out of this draft is for one of the guys predicted in the Top 4 in most of these Mocks to slip a bit.. A good, strong PF/C who can rebound and learn the plays. Someone who can play and contribute from Day 1. Someone who shows that they are ready after Summer League and Camp. Someone who can help this team improve next year.

Unless there is serious improvement with Evans and Cousins, along with a good Rookie contributing well and a trade and/or Free Agent pick-up adding athleticism and muscle in a Veteran, this team will miss the playoffs again.

That is a lot to ask in one off-season. Especially from a tteam who has a front office and ownership group in such turmoil. And after the turmoil settles the Kings still have an ownership family and management group loaded with mediocrity. And that is why they have gone six straight years in basically the same spot.

Lots guys to follow but those are three that I like, for what it’s worth…

Looks like the combine tryouts and interviews will determine Spots 2 thru 5 this year.

June 1st:

SacBee says compareyour Draft picks with theirs! OK, let’s do that shall we? Of course all they have posted is their #1 pick. Who is that guy? They out on a limb here or what? Jason Jones 1-14 picks are here

So, of course you figure it’s dead cause the Arena is dead. Wrong. It’s dead cause they could not get the required signatures. The effort only needed 21,000 people to support it but they could not reach that number.

Still, they try o take credit for pushing the Maloof’s in stopping their involvement in the Arena. Even though the Maloof’s were never really supporters anyway.

The entire thing is just so stupid and such a shame. Sacramento needs the Arena and the downtown railyard is the perfect spot for it. Kings or no Kings. You tell me that if the Arena was built the Maloof’s would not be a tenant? They would stay in their beat up falling apart arena that they don’t even clean anymore?

Well, no shit? You mean they can learn a thing or two from perhaps the most successful franchise in modern NBA history? Really?? You mean get a coach like Popovich? And keep him during tough times? Give him reins over the basketball stuff? Draft and keep quality players? Invest in your team? Get and keep good veterans? Things like that would help the Kings?

“The Spurs remind me a lot of us,” Doug Christie said before the San Antonio-Oklahoma City series began. “The backdoor plays, the extra passes. France,Argentina. We had players from Serbia,Turkey. You don’t say, ‘They’re loaded with superstars,’ but they’re deep and everybody can play. And it works because Pop (coach Gregg Popovich) has a system and sticks with it. They can beat you inside or outside. They can run. They all pass the ball. They defend better than we did, which is one difference. But the continuity puts the Spurs ahead of the curve, because the old guys teach the new guys.”

It’s not new for the Spurs. What happened to those Kings Doug Christie? Ask your Maloofs.

Under the direction of area strength and conditioning coach Guss Armstead since 1990, the Sacramento Pro Developmental League tips off tonight at Capital Christian High School.Games are Monday through Thursday (7:15 p.m.) through June 28. General admission is $7, and kids are free.

Armstead said players expected to play this summer include second-year Kings Isaiah Thomas and Tyler Honeycutt, local high school stars Dakarai Allen of Sheldon and Malik Pope of Laguna Creek, and Zach Andrews, an NBA Development League All-Star from Cordova High.Local NBA players such as Orlando’s Ryan Anderson (Oak Ridge), selected as the NBA’s Most Improved Player, and the Lakers’ Matt Barnes (Del Campo) also could play this summer.Now if only next seasons rookies and some veteran FA’s were signed and playing….maybe in a few more months, huh?

“Small market” teams OKC and San Antonio are making BIG noisethis NBA season both threatening to take the crown as the playoffs progress.

Unfortunaely, they are playing against each other, and just one will move deeper in the playoffs.

These two teams are small market even when placed alongside Sacramento which is the #20 media market in the U.S. far ahead of both of these markets. Both teams even rank below Greenville, S.C. in market share.

It is a healthy thing for the NBA to have markets like these two as well as others, `like Indianapolis and New Orleans or Sacramento and Memphis. This year these two teams are proving that mid-market and small-market teams can not only survive, but when they have quality management and coaching they can thrive in this league.

June 7th:

Now considering the prospects begins. Just three weeks are left until the actual 2012 NBA Draft. 3 weeks to decide your future. Not much time to get it right but hella lotta time to screw it up.

The combines and interviews in Chicago and individual tryouts and interviews at home. It will be a busy 3 weeks if you are a coach or a team Executive. Or a meddlesome owner.

“The primary goal in Chicago will be to interview top prospects and set up workouts in Sacramento later this month. There’s no way to tell exactly who those players will be since there’s no consensus as to who the best player is after (Anthony) Davis.”

Will the Kings draft one of the guys who pop up at #5 on all of these lists which sometimes seem so similar?

Or will Petrie pick a surprise player who turns out to be the ROY (Rookie of the Year)?

Or will the MaGoofs make their GM and trade the pick away so they can choose someone down the list, like they did in 2011 with Jimmer? (still not the move I would have made with Kawhi Leonard on the board)

“… trading down remains a realistic option. The Kings met with Jimmer Fredette at last year’s combine and liked him enough to know he was the player they wanted.”

Bradley Beal said Kings questoins included things about his basketball IQ and how he thinks the game. — Jason Jones (@mr_jasonjones)

Now that the Mayoral election is over two of Mayor Kevin Johnson’s top aides are leavinghis office to head up the Arena Task Force.

“Chief of Staff Kunal Merchant … and Special Assistant R.E. Graswich are leaving to focus on the mayor’s “Plan B” for an arena. That plan is exploring whether the city could build a downtown arena without the involvement of the Sacramento Kings.”

Drummond is a very big, strong and very young player who will probably be available when the Kings select at #5. He is also unpolished and immature. Sounds a little like Cousins when he was drafted. At #5.

He may be “the best available player” when the Kings pick unless someone drops in their lap or someone really shows something special during the combines and/or individual tryouts interviews.

“Drummond left the University of Connecticut after his freshman season. He averaged 10 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.7 blocked shots.

During that time, the 6-foot-11, 278-pound Drummond developed a reputation for being inconsistent yet foul-prone. His effort was also questioned.

Blake said Drummond is “a true center without true experience,” which is why he’d need time to develop. His size, strength and wingspan (7-61/4 and longest at the combine) has scouts believing he can be a dominant defender, shot blocker and rebounder.” A big, strong, youngg shot blocker and rebounder will be very tempting for the Kings.

“Davis also has been doing some of his own interviewing. He may be the top prospect in this year’s NBA draft, but he still hasn’t hired an agent.

Davis expects to decide on an agent in the next couple of days. Meantime, he is getting to know the staff of the New Orleans Hornets,who own the first pick in the draft.”

June 10th:

The Kings “Las Vegas Casino”—The Palms is shutting down their Playboy Club, opened by the Maloof brothers in 2006. Incidentally the same year the Maloof boys started their 6 straight years of losing in the NBA.

The Maloofs though turned their 98% ownership of the Palms into a 2% ownership.

They went from a hundreds of millions deal, potentially finally turning them into billionaires (??) and trashed it, losing it all.

If we make the math easy (the numbers were much larger) and say their 98% was $100 million, then they lost and now have just $2 million. George Maloof was in charge of the Palms, the same guy who recently trashed the entire idea of a brand new Arena for the Maloof boys NBA team, the Kings.

Enough about the Maloof boys. The story was the Playboy Club was closed by the new oners of the Palms who don’t want to be associated ith the name or the reference apparently.

Next up for NBA Draft prospectsare workouts: either individual or group workouts depending on how “special” they are. Read the SacBee article about workouts at the link. We will hear a lot about draft prospects and their workouts the next week or so.

June 11th:

“Sacramento needs help“ to land Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (MKG) in the 2012 NBA Draft. Probably the 2nd most polished player available in the draft, the Kings ould probably rather land a skilled & polished big man at the PF spot. MKG is a top tier SF and the Kings could certainly use help there. The team has a handful of players but no potential All-Star right? But is MKG?

MKG is the SF the Kings let get away a few years ago, Gerald Wallace. High flying athlete with a never say stop motor. He also has serious kinks in his jump shot.

Jared Sullinger brushes aside his many criticisms “Everybody is overanalyzing my game,” he said. “I’m always the bad guy in every gym. Everybody says I can’t do this or that, everybody points out all the negative things I do. There’s a lot of positives I think I do, but that’s not for me to discuss.”

He is projected to go somewhere from 7th to the middle of the First Round. Sullinger was Freshman of the Year and this season followed that prestigious award up being named as a first team All-America selection. He has soft hands and a good shot.

Hensons role at NC and his primary skilset was on the defensive side. A high energy kid, rebounder and shotblockin Forward. He understands what he can provide to the team who eventually drafts him later this month.

Henson is 6’10” 216 and will need to be “best friends” with the strength coach as he put it. Henson believes he can add 15 pounds by time for the 2012/13 season..

He will definitely need to add body mass to survive the rigors of the NBA PF or even SF role. He would certainly get banged a bit as a backup Center.

Henson is doubtful at the #5 pick. Today Center Tyler Zeller, Henson’s NC teammate will be in Sacramento to try out.

June 16th:

Kentucky prospectTerrance Jones stresses versatility. Stressing his ability to play both the SF & the PF positions.

“Listed in college at 6-foot-9 and 252 pounds, Jones looks ready to go shoulder-to-shoulder with NBA players, and he’s also considered to have impressive athleticism for his build.Jones said he’s been compared to Marvin Williams and Lamar Odom,players who have played both forward positions in the NBA.”Jones averaged 12.3 points and over 7 rebounds as an important part of the Kentucky Wildcats Championship team. He was often overshadowed by Anthony Davis andJones also stresses that he learned how to fit his skills into game situations game by game, suggesting he had to learn to fit his production into the needs the team had in an individual game and what his coach wanted from him.

Decent choices at the 5th pick? That’s what Kings officials are saying as we get close to the June 28th Draft Day. Read what they are saying HERE.

June 27th:

Tomorrow is the NBA Draft and today’s Bee article says that “the Kings have options at #5” but really the options that are laid out are “trade the pick” or “keep the pick”. What other options are there at this point? Either you have decided to trade and move up in the draft (the Kings don’t have the horses for that) or trade down in the draft (the Kings made a bad decision to do this last year. Do they want to risk a tenuous connection to Sacramento fans and dump the pick again?) or keep the pick (knowing there just isn’t much there unless someone falls into their lap).

My suggestion? Keep it and hope for that perfect storm that would allow the best player (well 2nd ) to fall their way like Cousins did two years ago. That means Harrison Barnes or even Michael Kidd-Gilchrist would slip and for that to happen the Bee is right that the Bobcats need to take Robinson. If that one thing happens Thursday then we better hope the Kings kept #5—-or made an amazing trade.

The trades talked about in the Bee don’t seem amazing. The trades seem like Jimmer Fredette “pull your hair out” trades. I just don’t see trading #5 so someone else can trade for Dwight Howard.

Where will you be on Draft Day June 28th? How about one of the Neighborhood Draft Day Parties?? There will be Draft parties at five locations hosted by the Kings from 4pm to 7:30pm.

Where are the parties?

All five parties are free to the public, with doors opening at 4 p.m. at the following locations:

Find out more about these parties HERE from the press release. You will be able to mingle with Kings players Marcus Thornton, Jason Thompson and Hassan Whiteside, Kings Dance Team members, Breakers and Slamson

The Bleed Black and Purpleblog had a very good post just a few days ago about that #5 spot the Kings find themselves holding, saying that it is

“…not hard to question the happenings in Sacramento over the last six-seven years. As owners, the Maloofs have repeatedly said they are going to spend to get better.”

Ain’t that the truth, so even in easier drafts anything from the mouths of Kings would be hard to decipher. As today’s Bee article explained well, Draft Day in the NBA people say a lot of things. And none of it is true. So sometimes if you really want to confuse people….you tell the truth.

“…back to the basketball side of things. Petrie has been on the hot seat for some time now. And let face it, Mikki Moore signings will do that to a fellow. But let’s not kid ourselves; most of Petrie’s mishaps are a direct result of the Maloofs not opening the checkbook” That fellas is the honest to gosh truth.

“We are entering a new era in the NBA. The Lakers, Spurs, Suns, Celtics and Mavs all look like they are headed for rebuild mode. The Grizzlies, Clippers and Timberwolves are on the rise. Will the Kings even be in the discussion? Does the same group that put together the Webber/Divac team have it in them to do it again? Do Kings fans even believe they can do it again.”

Trade rumors? The big one in the Bee (can any rumor be true if it is published in the Bee?) is Kyle Lowry of the Rockets for the Kings #5 plus Houston would add their #14 & #16 picks. There must be something else in the mix (John Salmons anyone?) for it to make any sense. But does it make sense at all? Apparently that “other” is Tyreke Evans. ‘Reke hasn’t lived up to his ROY expectations but he is still the 2nd best player on this team and has abilities that could make him an All-Star.

Not someone I would want to trade for 14 and 16 in a weak draft. “The rumors will continue, but this deal seems highly unlikely unless the Rockets sweeten the offer. More to come in the days ahead“

3:58 pm it does not appear the Kings will be making that trade to the Rockets for their #14 & 16 plus Kyle Lowry as sources have confirmed(via Sam Amick of Sports Illustrated) that the Rockets moved their #14 pick to Milwaukee along with Samuel Dalembert who will join his 3rd team in 2 years and 4th team in the last 3 seasons after his big year just 3 seasons ago.

Donte’ Green will not be resigned by the Kings according to Carmichael Dave who spoke to Green today.

Speaking of SI, here’s a Mock Draft at SItoday “with movement in the top five, trade chatter and misdirections galore. ” I won’t ruin it for you but they show Robinson going #2 to Charlotte which means the Kings would really get some decent choice with #5. Except of course it is the Kings 2012 version which means drama up the ying-yang. Check it out at the link above.

Now the Kings drama swirls around “we want a Center” when it has all been “we want a SF” and “we want a PF”.

I guess it is easy to understand all of the dysfunction. This is the Kings after all. And, truth be told they need a Center to back up Cousins. And a Small Forward. And really a Power Forward. Really. So what do you do? You don’t have a good enough team to select a back-up Center with #5. Maybe they entertain trade offers and drop down to take a back-up IF they gget a quality PF in return. Quality not crap. And not a SF, you have a good one in Evans. Treat him right, give him a spot and let him grow. SF or SG but plus him the fuck in and leave him alone. Smart seems to be able to coach the kid.

Maybe Drummond could learn to play PF/C, but as far as I can see he is a project. And I don’t see a good player coming to the Kings to make this trade worthwhile.

The Lakers are so interested in Michael Kidd-Gilchrist that they are dangling Pau Gasol for a Top 5 pick and a player. Gasol is not a bad player to have and is certainly an impovement over MKG at this point. But what about in 3 years? Do you make that trade now? I would say yes depending on the “player to be named”. This from Lakers Beat Writer @Mike_Bresnahan of the LA Times. A rumor from someone in the know.

And will the Lakers trade their 60th pick in the 2012 Draft?

And Chad Ford from ESPN Sports Nation during his internet chat today:

…Let’s put it this way. If the (Charlotte) Hornets wanted to trade the draft rights to Davis today … I think there is only three players they COULDN’T trade him for: LeBron, Kevin Durant and Chris Paul. Normally I’d add Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose to the mix. But with Dwight Howard threatening to bolt Orlando, of course the Magic would do the deal. And given the seriousness of Rose’s injury, I think the Bulls would seriously consider pulling the trigger too. Remember, Davis is from Chicago as well.

Apparently Metta World Peace could be part of a Gasol package deal. Does that entice the Kings??

So with 24 hours to go, what do I want to see happen as a Kings fan? Who do I want assuming Davis is already signed and has his first All-Star birth lined up after his Rookie-Of-The-Year award ceremonies…

Hell I want Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Davis won’t be there. Robinson goes second. Of all the other guys on the board MKG is the guy.

Doesn’t play the position the Kings need to fill. So start working on trades. Decent trades cause you won’t get great ones.

MKG is tough as nails and everywhere he goes his teams just win. And win. Every level, every team.

Don’t get me wrong he has holes in his game. Someone says he is like Scottie Pippen. But today if you have or you can get a good shooter and then get the modern-day Scottie Pippen for the next 10 years do you take that player?? Hell yes.

So pray Charlotte takes the next big man with Thomas Robinson, and leaves MKG on the board.

And pray the Kings have just been misdirecting folks because Ford is 100% right:

“FORD: And don’t get me started on the Kings. They have five guys on their roster that care nothing for defense or chemistry and want to jack up 20 shots a night. They finally get a chance at a guy who can make a huge impact on the floor without the ball in his hands and their response is to trade the pick.”

Ok, just for the giggles…

SIMMONS: ”’…Moving on to Sacramento’s no. 5 pick, we might make some history here, Chad. Even though it would be foolish to overpay in a trade for someone like Andre Drummond (who has all the textbook Thabeet/Kwame/Darko red flags), but you know someone might … only Geoff Petrie is the one trading the pick, which means we might be headed for a double rainbow of dumbness. After all, Petrie was the guy who dumped a mildly annoying contract (Beno Udrih) for a mildly disastrous contract (John Salmons) so he could move back three spots and make the worst lottery pick of the 2011 draft (Jimmer Fredette). He’s capable of anything. That makes me wonder if we could see a trade like this: Detroit deals Tayshaun Prince (expires 2015) and the no. 9 pick to Sacramento for the no. 5 pick and Salmons’s contract (expires 2015). Sacramento stays in the top nine and adds an unselfish veteran swingman who won’t really help them because it’s not like they can compete for a title; Detroit sneaks into the top five and rolls the dice with a Drummond/Monroe tandem that will eventually fail. Everyone loses!

FORD: Agree that Petrie is doing the GM equivalent of impaired driving with this pick. Kings fans are watching, horrified, as he weaves back and forth across the road. The question isn’t whether he collides into the telephone pole … it’s when. And no, Joe Dumars already drafted Darko. He’s not going to move up to do it again. At no. 9? Maybe, but Drummond is much safer at 9 than at 5.

SIMMONS: You’re right, this is crazy … let’s just do something sane. With the fifth pick for Sacramento, I’m taking Thomas Robinson … a.k.a. the rich man’s Carl Landry. Stick him with DeMarcus Cousins and, at the very least, you’ll be pounding the boards and making opponents miserable every game. But if the Kings can get an offer like “Parsons and the 14th/18th picks” or “Rudy Gay straight up” or even “Andre Iguodala straight up” for this spot, they should grab it. You know, unless MKG is sitting there.

(Thinking.)

Oh, god. They’re going to screw this up, aren’t they?

ok I’m thru laughing. Because I read the last sentence.

I’m taking my head out of the NBA Draft Day rumormill. It is getting viscious

Of course, maybe it’s all misinformation and MKG goes to Charlotte meaning that Robinson survives for the #5 pick. Could be why Sacramento has turned down all of these crazy fantasy trades and lives to take their pick (???)

Donte’ Greene says good byeto Sacramento, the fans and all of his friends. For the comedy alone, plus some games that were strangely very very good, I will miss Donte’ and some city will be glad to have him and probably at a good price.

Kings could fill the need at SF But if they do fill that need what do they do with Tyreke Evans?? Plus him in at SG where he should have been since Day 1 after he was drafted? Or trade him? Cause they do keep trying don’t they?

Aare they predicting MKG cuz otherwise I am tired of this crap.

and another last minute Mock-Draft, this one from Sacramento. Who do you think the Kings get?? Anthony Davis? oh WTF???

.. But this kid should have gone second in this draft and could surprise everyone and turrn out to be ROY, you just never know.

17+ points and 11+ rebounds, leading the Kansas Jayhawks to the NCAA Championship game. And the Kings get him filling a big big hold next to Cousins. This could make the frontline of the team the best younr frontcourt in the league.

Who will want to rebound against Cousins and the new kid Robinson?? I would have been happy with MKG but Charlotte took him instead of Robinson and look who the hell Sacramento got?? Excellent!!

The Kings traded their 2nd Round pick to the Indianapolis Pacers in order to fi,l a much needed hole.

The Kings traded their pick for…..Cash! Cash? These great business men of the Maloof family turned down an Arena the city was going to build for them ….. need cash? I think they got $3

It really is a bit like Christmas in June.

” I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen Geoff Petrie this happy. When he approached the gathering of media types in the practice facility late Thursday night, he was almost giddy. As coach Keith Smartnoted, Robinson was the “clear cut” choice within the organization if he was available. And, of course, no one thought he would be available

This is all started because Charlotte Bobcats owner/boss Michael Jordan decided to take Michael Kidd-Gilchrist instead of grabbing Robinson or moving the pick. MJ, of course, has never lacked guts. He drafted Kwame Brown and Adam Morrison– tough even for the game’s greatest player to live down – but that didn’t stop him from following his instincts again on Thursday.”

It’s like the one article in the Bee started today…”Thomas Robinson at #5? You gotta be kidding me!”

Free AgencyThe Draft is over and the team and fans are about as happy as they could be given the spot the Kings drafted in. Now the Free Agency period begins at Midnight Eastern time (9pm Sacramento time) tonight and players can be signed July 11thThe Kings first focus will be Jason Thompson, a restricted Free Agent whom the Kings want to resign.

Beyone that the team chose not to nake an offer to Donte’ Green freeing up his salary of $2 million and will decide if they want to conpete for their own unrestricted Free Agents:

Terrance Williams

Williams played well in the 18 games he spent in Sacramento after he was signed last season.

Expiring Contracts

Francisco Garcia

I have not been impressed by Garcia for 3 or 4 years at least and would have traded him if given any chance at all. Somehow he has become the veteran with the longest time in Sacramento and it’s time to end that relationship. He is a good cheerleader on the bench but his jump shot is suspect and his paycheck is too large to retain him unless he wants to take a very significant pay cut.

The team is $15 million under the Salary Cap, but in piblic don’t seem willing to spend money on players like Guard Andre’ Miller. They arre interested in Nicolas Batum from Portland but Batum is a restricted Free Agent and Portland has said they will do everything to keep him. Batum could fill the hole at SF immediately. I miss Gerald Wallace, but don’t see the team paying his salary of $9 million.

Everyone knows what the Kings need: Defense, a quality SF, help at PG (although views on what kind of help are wide and varied), a player with a quality jump shot, a leader, and a shotblocker unless Hassan Whiteside is healthy and ready.

Robinson fills a need at PF and was the “best available” player, but he does not “fix” the Kings.

So let Free Agency begin and hope that the Kings can pick up someone decent and makes good decisions about their own guys, JT and Cisco. Then with a decent trade the Kings will be improved over last season. I hope.

So who are the 2012 NBA Free Agents?

From Hoops World here is the list of every free agent in the league. They list restricted and unrestricted players, explain the requirements for both types of free agents and all of the options. It ain’t easy folks. Check out the list HERE.

June 3rd:

AEG drops out of effort to build a non-Kings arena in the Railyard callingg it “non-feasible”. Mayor believes there are still options, but AEG does not see any significant arena possibilities without the Kings nvolved. No word from the Kings about “I told you so”.

Springtime brings many things: warmer weather, flowers and plants as well as the gardening & cleanup that goes along with those things, kids looking forward to summer break (those who get one), the concert season, tomato season in Sacramento, NBA basketball championships (sorry Sacramento) & March Madness, allergies (achoo) vacation planning…..so many other things.

And one of my favorites each year. outdoor dining!

When I was growing up in the 50s and 60s Sacramento actually had an ordinance prohibiting sidewalk seating. All we had was restaurants like the Firehouse that had enclosed patios.

We had to go to San Francisco to actually enjoy sidewalk dining, and it was such a treat. Almost a taboo! People fought real hard to get the city to approve sidewalk dining.

Now we have so many choices, from simple fare to fine dining. Lunchtime and dinner and late night dining as well.

Downtown, midtown, East Sacramento and all regions in the city and the county as well as surrounding area like West Sacramento, Folsom, Elk Grove, Roseville, down the Sacramento River, up the American River. Who does not have at least one restaurant with sidewalk dining?

There are so many outdoor dining spots it i hard to pick your favorite. If the choice is favorite place to eat outside my is…still the Firehouse.

If the choice is limited to sidewalk eatingit is a little more difficult to choose for some reason.

Well we can choose an alley-walk rather than a sidewalk and pick Old Soul 1716 L Street, rear alley.

If the choice is a real sidewalk I would pick Three Sisters on J Street with their wonderful dining area with a bit of a wall next to the sidewalk or 33rd Street Bistro on Folsom Boulevard. I enjoy both of these places, they have different styles of food but both try hard to provide good service and quality food.

What other places outdoors?

Well, check out the recent article in the Sacramento Beefor a lot of selections, all good. It got me thinking about the subject, made me quite hungry and led to this post.

They list some places that I enjoy like

Mulvaneys, 1215 19th Street

Restaurant Thir13en, 1300 H Street

Juno’s Kitchen & Deli, 3675 J Street

Paesano’s 1806 Capitol Avenue

Zocalo, right down the street at 1801 Capitol Avenue

and many more that I still must try out.

What other places? Leave me comments here or Tweet me @zenDR and tell me about your favorite joints, where and why.

The City of Sacramento is planning a workshop for the public focused on the new Sacramento Arena .

“City staffers plan to discuss the proposed arena site in the downtown railyard,integrating the arena with the planned intermodal transit hub and linking the project to historic features of the railyard.”

I haven’t called it the Kings arena because the Kings owners seem so unwilling to be part of the process. I believe the Kings will be, but the owners will either be replaced (sell) or go into a lease agreement kicking, screaming and crying like little babies.

No. The Maloof’s have been called to the NBA Board of Governors meeting where one of the topics of discussion will be the Maloofs refusal to pay their fair share of the arena pre-development costs. David Stern came up with the money out of his own pocket.

Note: Stern’s pocket contains money that all the other owners have given as their ‘Governor’ or owner dues, so it isn’t really Stern’s money. It is the owners money.

So…to review: The Sacramento owners refused to pay the pre-development costs. Stern used money from the other owners to pay the bill. The Maloof’s now have to meet with Stern and all the other owners to “discuss” this issue.

The City “public” (the fans, the non-fans and folks that just like City workshops) will be at a workshop about te arena tat the Maloof’s are trying to hide from.

This post will cover individual college players who may be drafted by the NBA. As we move closer to Draft Day in June, I will probably include draft sites and Mock Drafts.

Every player has fans, friends and family—and some folks get upset if they think something “negative” has been written. I try not to be negative when it comes to writing about high school or college age athletes.

They are very young and at a critical point as far as physical and emotional maturity. More important, what is written could mean money. Cash. So I will try not to affect their pocketbooks negatively

I will write what I see and say what I think. Sometimes that may not go over well with some readers, but if you remember the focus of this post–I am writing what I see and hear about a college player as it projects to possibly playing in the NBA.

For some of these kids that is a few years off.

Most of these young men would be better served to finish college. I know the pressures they must feel to go pro as soon as they can, especially if they get projected as a lottery player. But even Round 1 non-lottery players often make the jump because they worry about injuries, a coaching change that may affect their minutes etc. So many things.

But, they need to finish school. Just my thought.

I may even talk about the Final Four as we get closer, because how can you not??

I will break players down in broad categories, mostly by their college position, and not trying to predict what teams may do after the draft. It is so tough trying to figure out where a player will succeed as a pro. College and the NBA are just so different.

Guard

ESPN tells usthat over the last 4 years the draft has produced 17 starting Point Guards including some of the best in the league. 17 starters. This year there may be none. And his list covers true PGs, not converted SGs (like Sacramento‘s Tyreke Evans) or Point Fowards.

Read the article at the link above as you prepare for the draft. ESPN is calling it a Point Guard drought. You need to be an ESPN “Insider” to get the full article but you get the ESPN Magazine with it. Or the other way around.

Damien Lillard, Weber State. Lillard is predicted to be a Point Guard, but teams must be cautious. Lillard is an aggressive player with a “score first” mentality and while he will probably succeed as an eventual pro, Lillard is not a pure point guard by any means.

Lillard hits 90% of his Free Throws, can move right or left, is an effective ball handler and can pull up and hit the jumper nearly anywhere on the floor. Which can cause problems for pro PGs when they fall in love with their jump shot.

Lillard’s playmaking abilities often seem to escape him as his focus is so often on his shot. Weber State describes Lillard as their primary scoring threat. Nice, but not want their NBA wants from PGs.

Although Sac State‘s chances are more than slim vs Weber State, I look foward to seeing Lillard play here in a few weeks.

Weber State vs Sac StateJanuary 25, 2012: Short story, Weber State manhandled Sac State. Although Lillard was held to 7-17 shooting he managed to score 21 points and it seemed that every player on his team popped for double figures. Everyone was scoring.

Sac State kept the last game between these two closer back on New Yeares Eve. This time the Wildcats won by 15.

Lillard brought a lot of folks with him. NBA scouts, players and even our local GM. People wanted to catch the opportunity to see him play. The fans were happy with Lillard, even on an off-shooting night. The paper today points out his ability to get his players involved, and you could certainly see that.

I don’t know all of the scouts but I think each was introduced, plus Jason Thompson, DeMarcus Cousins and Geoff Petrie all from the Sacramento Kings, even Stevie Johnson ,WR with the Buffalo Bills, and a lot of local High School players hoping to catch some magic.

January 8th:Great gamegainst Portlnd State University last night, scoring 38 points and leading all plyers, including making like 8 3 pointers..

Craft takes the Point Guard positionfor a very talented team. Craft is tough defensively and spreads over 5 APG and grabs nearly 3 steals. Scoring is not his primary talent, Craft is an unselfish player functioning as a floor-General for his team.

Craft is a sophomore for the Buckeyes with fistfuls of national awards plus school records last season. Plus he is apparently a smart, well-liked kid. Important for NBA PGs.

I have only seen TV games for O-State and remember more about the team (they have Final Four chances this year, definitely) than Craft. That only means I need to pay more attention!

Napier took the Point for Connecticut after Kemba Walker left for the pros. In his first seasonleading the team, Napier is averaging more than 15 PPG to go with his 6.7 APG, 4.5 RB and over 2 steals in each game. That is a sweet combination of stats and reveals why Connecticut continues to win after Walker left.

So, the team that may wind up #1 this year also has the PG who may be the best college PG. That won’t make him the top NBA pick. But as a ball distributor he is the best, and fortunately for Marshall, he is surrounded by talented players who can score and rebound. Marshall’s job is to put the ball in their hands and he does it well, but only scores some 6 PPG early in the season.

His numbers show a passing Guard with over 10 assists per game to go with 14 PPG, 4+ REBs and almost 2 steals.

For a young man who just graduated from High School, Zeller has exploded on the college basketball scene. he has only played eight games, but Zeller scores and rebounds plus his defense results in blocks and steals.

He may fall apart at the college level, as he has a skinny frame and short arms. But he’s also just 19 years old and has time to grow. Zeller is a 6’11” Center is college, but how do you predict a spot in the pros today? Give him time to play, grow and learn. Then we will see if he plays out as a SF, PF or C.

Scott is a SeniorSF for the Cavaliers scoring nearly 17 PPG and very efficient. He has been ACC Player of the Week 3 times with team highs in scoring and rebounds. Scott rebounds well for a SF and is averaging almost 9 per game.

The Draft: An Early Look-See:

CBS has notes on each player teams are probably considering, including:

Anthony Davis, F-C Kentucky

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, G-F Kentucky

Harrison Barnes, SF North Carolina

Jared Sullinger, SF Ohio State

Thomas Robinson, Kansas C

Austin Rivers, Duke G

Terence Jones, Kentucky F

And many more. A total of three pages of players. Yes, it is early. Nice!!!

Ed Weiland is the FedEx driver/math whiz who was the only guy in the country to predict Linsanity.

Maybe we should pay attention to Ed’s analysis. They cover 60 players with notes on 40 or so.

This Weiland article follow up on his first cutat this draft back in January. If you read both you can see how much homework he does.

As the season approached many analysts were expecting a strong draft. Maybe just because the last two have not been strong. Ed sees it as a mediocre draft at best.

I think he may be right. I hate to say that because Sacramento will be in the lottery again and it would be nice to have more than a handful of top-tier players.

PF Anthony Davis is still the clear #1 here and probably a future All-Star.

February 9th:

Wow!! Duke surprises #5 UNC at the buzzer! Austin Rivers, son of the legendary Doc Rivers, dribbled the clock down as the crowd got louder and louder. And then he shot over 7 foot UNC Center Tyler Zeller as the clock showed just one second left in a great game. the ball slipped thru the net.

Duke wins 85-84.

It was Rivers 6th 3 in the game. Rivers scored 29 points in the most exciting game of a night filled with college basketball.

I’m not sure how many games were played last night, but there were a ton.

Rivers has been criticized a lot in his Freshman year, as has his coach. But his confidence has apparently not left him and he now has a game Duke fans will talk about for years. And, love em or hate em.Duke has a lot of history to talk about.

April 2nd:

Great March Madness has come down to the April final tonight. Let’s see Kentucky over Kansas.

We got to see a lot of players we had only heard about as the tournament moved on. And we got to see some of the really good college players a number of times as their teams went deep.

Who surprised you? Kansas has continued to surprise me without any real stars but a very solid team. And Thomas Robinson is very tough in the middle.

NC and NC State both surprised me by not making it to the Final Four. Thought one would be there.

Chad Ford has his take on the underclassmen who have declared themselves eligible for the 2012 Draft in his Who’s In/Who’s Out? here. 20 players up to today! Should be a much deeper draft than we have had for the last couple of years. If you are one of those ESPNInsiders you can read Chad’s full article.

“As this draft comes into better focus it is shaping up as a draft heavy on forwards and backup centers. Anthony Davis remains the top pick. He’s the only player who looks like he has a good shot at becoming an all-star. After Davis it is something of a mixed bag. Overall the quality is weak compared to drafts of the previous decade, but still an upgrade on 2011. What could hurt this draft is most of the best prospects are underclassmen and a lot of them seem destined to be headed back to college for 2013. Right now there are enough intriguing players and role players to make this draft interesting for at least the first round.”

“The impact of the NCAA tournament usually affects the stock of several players, though that impact is often oversold”

That’s the unfortunate truth. Often we wind up scratching our heads half-way thru the next season or a few years down the road, wondering “How could (fill in the blank) have chosen (fill it in again)?”

And we can sometimes find the truth of that question living in the March Madness ups & downs leading up to Draft Day.

July 1st:

Big crowd at Arden Fair to see Robinson yesterday. And he was all of 6’9″, 244 pounds, 7’1″ wingspan and hands so big…just huge hands.

Robinson was quiet, respectful and looked ready to go to work with the Kings Las Vegas Summer League team in 2 weeks.

Today the question is, beyond Jason Thompson what Free Agent(s) can the Kings hope to attract. You have to figure someone is more willing to join a team that has the guts of a front court with Cousins and Robinson than they were a few days ago.

The stars on the list are mostly ageing, the young ones are mostly Restricted. One you are less likely to want, the other less likely to get.

Nicolas Batum is Restricted. The rest are Unrestricted here including Marcus Camby, Andrei Kirelinko (still and the Kings were in hot pursuit last year. Instead they signed Travis Outlaw), Ersan Ilyasova an improved F, Terrance Williams (I would want him back but do the Kings?), some veteran PGs…..we shall see what the rumor mill produces over the next few days.

August 29th:

No mention of the Kings or any other pro sports tem t Tuesday’s Virginia Beach Cit Council meeting where one agenda topic was new sports ren in town. A 18,000 seat pro-sized arena for a team that many are calling the “Beach-Ballers”.

There are a number of Kings blogs & websites out there that cover the season, games & injuries, rumors, draft choices, etc better than I can.

So what will this post be about?

I will cover some games. Games that I decide to cover because of their importance to the season or the team or the arena chances etc. Or just something funny, weird, good, or important happened in or at the game.

I will cover actions related to the new Arena.

I will cover some rumors. Rumors that I decide are interesting. Or funny.

It is hard to guess which Laker team we may get for today’s game. They will be embarrassed and have the pride bruised, that is never a good thing. On the other hand, the young Kings watched a very good & young Bulls team come back and play a very good game against the Lakers.

I am looking forward to seeing how the Kings team develops and matures. The team has some very good pieces and the group of youngsters could grow & mature together. Or not at all.

What did Paul Westphal say? Watch it here. I’m not sure what happened, if you read this morning’s Bee recap of the last game (loss) you can tell Cousins is unhappy. But appaently it was not a public “trade me or else” pronouncement. The Coach benched him tonight because he says Cousins won’t play in Sacramento.

Want to read the dead-secret first draft of Coach Westphal’s statement on the cousins’ situation? It’s sarcastic and even a bit funny. Portions of this version even seem to be at least partly true (??)

So in the midst of a losing streak, the Arena mess, a short season…what else? Oh yeh, you told your best player to sit on the bench somewhere else because You don’t want him near “your team”.

This is not good. Long term speaking this is not good. DeMarcus is a good player with a huge upside who is apparently unhappy enough to start something like this a week into the new season. And we have seen this before. Now who will offer a quality trade for this player?

“Grumbling over coach Paul Westphal’s new offense was heard, as were concerns over a lack of effort. “Everybody keeps blaming the coach, about the plays, the plays not (being) good, but, hey, it be like that sometime,” guard Tyreke Evans said. “You’ve just got to play.”

…”I don’t know what that was,” center DeMarcus Cousins said. “Running the offense coach tells us to run. Just doing what coach say. Got to do what your coach say.”
Read more at the link above.

“Cousins’ agent, John Greig, told The Beeearlier today that it is “absolutely not true that DeMarcus or I demanded a trade. We need to find out what the position of the organization is. Nobody has talked to me and I would look forward to talking to the Maloofs.”

…”Westphal said he “considered all possibilities” about how to handle Cousins’ request, but decided that telling Cousins to stay home from tonight’s game was “by far the best solution.”

SacTown Royaltytalks about some of the disturbing aspects of Westphal’s “public” revelation of Counsins’ suspension and the reasons (??) I like the statement that Cousins was “suspended for actions detrimental to Westphal’s ego”. It certainly wouldn’t be the first coach & player earthquake over what is really very little.

Check it: Half of Westphal’s statement about the mess was that Counsins “continually, aggressively, lets it be known that he is unwilling/unable to embrace traveling in the same direction as his team” and as the SacTown folks asked, what direction did the Kings seem to be heading after losing 3 of the first 4 games of the season? After stinking up the Arena so early in the 2011/2012 basketball season?

And just why wasn’t Evan’s suspended for his public questions/statements about the direction of the team after the last loss?

And when Jason Jones from the Bee “askedGeoffPetrieiftheKingsintendtotradeCousins. Hisanswer: “No.” (Petrie) PlanstomeetwithCousinstomorrow.”

But by the afternoon there is a report that Mr Cousins, the best Center on the team, is on the team plane and headed to Memphis with the team. Good news!! The report comes from comcast Sports Net so is reliable.

But how happy can he possibly be? Assume he did not demand a trade, or said something about a trade in the heat of the moment after losing at home to the Knicks. Now your coach called you out. Basically went public and said he does not want you anymore. What happens now peeps?

“The Kings maintain that DeMarcus Cousins demanded to be traded. Cousins maintains that didn’t happen.Neither side is budging on its claim following a meeting Monday involving Cousins, his agent, John Greig, and Kings basketball president Geoff Petrie.”

…Cousins issued a statement Monday: “I want to address my missing the New Orleans game Sunday. I have not demanded or requested a trade. I don’t agree with the actions taken but will give my sincere effort to put it behind me and compete the best I can for my team.”

Read more in the Bee article at the link above.

January 5th:

Westphal fired!! Keith Smart is the new Head Coach, NOT the Interim Head Coach. So what do you think??

And did the team management/ownership know what Westphal was going to say about the Cousins’ dust-up?? Or did the Coach seal his own fateby saying a few things that surprised and baffled the Maloofs and Petrie?

Add your comment below.

I think giving Smart the position is a good decision. He’s a smart guy, did an OK job at Golden State for one season, and may turn out to be a good Head Coach. And the poor guys that wind up being Interim. What kinda job title is that?

I’ve been Interim. I’ve been Acting. And I have bbeen given the title.

Believe me, it makes a big big difference in how you approach the job. Congratulations Keith Smart.

Here is the big Press Conference:

I would call the Westphal firing the best off-season move the Kings made. But it’s a bit past the season starter. Or, given the lockout, maybe we can still call it an off-season move.

Kings seem to be playing some of their best ball this season against the Bucks. I do think most of the players expected the firing and are glad to have it done so the team can move forward.

The Kings wona very difficult game over the Bucks, 103-100 and probably improved their emotional health, more than they improved their W-L statistics.

And (probably) the final article on the Westphal firing is hereand makes some good points.

December 7th:

Update on Chuck Hayes, dislocated shoulder has him out 3-4 weeks. The Kings could use his veteran leadership right now. More at the link.

December 8th:

Smart blames the Kings troubles on “poor spacing”. An issue for most losing teams. The question seems to be which came first? Poor spacing or an “I am the team” attitude? Was it the lack of good spacing on the floor that caused me to dribble out without looking for a teammate to pass to? Or have I become a selfish baller that wants to take every shot?

Dunno…

Today, we also have a reporter indicating (again) that the real problem behind the Kings difficulties is the Maloof family’s dwindling fortunes. When you lose a billion here and a Billion there suddenly there’s the real chance you can fall below the “Billionaire” tag.

The Maloof’s lost control of their Las Vegas casino, The Palms and have seen their giant beer distributorship sold. The distributorship was their father’s road to millionaire status for the family, and since then they have added pieces that, during good times, grew considerably.

Since it is a family owned group of businesses, they don’t have to share with the public how things are going. And NBA owners aren’t required to open their books to fans (or even non-fans), so it is hard to figure out the team fortunes.

But it makes sense that over the last 4-5 years, as many people struggled financially, the Maloof family may have found it difficult to spend giant money on the Kings. Which then becomes a bit of an avalanche. It makes sense that this could be the reason we don’t hear the word “Sacramento” attached to FA rumors or signings and to high-profile names when it comes to Head Coaches.

But bad choices for Head Coaches, whether because of money or poor choices or pig-headedness results in the same 5 year slide we have seen in Sacramento.

So, the Maloof family may believe their basketball fortunes may improve if they are in Los Angeles or New York or (??), but if they cannot compete against other “small market” cities what will they do in L.A.? Sink!!

Talking bout Small Markets the new documentary Small Market, Big Heartpremiers tonight at the Crest Theater downtown.

The film is about Sacramento’s struggle to keep the Kings here (where they belong) and the heart of the City—the fans. “Small Market” is a term developed by the NBA and billionaire owners. The cities they drop the term on don’t view themselves as small anything.

Sacramento has been in the Top 50 TV markets in the country since like 1970. We may be smaller than NYC or L.A., but what city isn’t?

Last night the “new” Cousinsscored 21 points and added 19 boards in a road win over the Raptors. This was an important win for the Kings and aan important confidence booster for Cousins. Sometimes I think we forget he is just 19 and in only his 2nd season as a pro as we push him to mature “now”.

The Kings also had Rookie Isaiah Thomas who scored 20 and also had 6 assists.

The Kings are a very young team and getting some wins like this where they stay in the game and close it down when the opportunity is there is just so important to the guys. The fans want to win every game, but really what they must see is a group of guys who stay in the game, play their best for the full 48 minutes and at least win the ones that belong to them.

And we have an article about how much trouble DeMarcus Cousins is. Is he the first immature 19 year old to enter the NBA? Even the folks that wrote this article admit he is less immature this year and even less after the coaching change. I ain’t saying he has grown up and will never cause another problem but he is not the monster some folks want to mke him out to be.

And we have this: an excellent look at Small Forwardsin the league and in college. The author evaluates whether or not each player would be an upgrade at the 3 for the Kings and what the chance is for actually grabbing the player.

Very good article on the most important component for the Kings. John Salmons is not the answer and whoever made the decision to take on his contract AND move down a couple of spots in the draft just to take Fredette (who we would have drafted anyway), should be fired. Or maybe he was fired?

Anyway, check out the article. It is a good one.

January (Friday the) 13th:

A Sacrmento County politician suggests renovating and upgrading the current Kings (Power Balance) Arena rather than building a new one.

The current facility is 23 years old and if you do a facelift, you will still need a new arena in a short number of years. Then the public will ask “Didn’t we just pay for that?” And, they would be right to balk at any public money again. Kind of like some are asking now as Sacramento is still owed money for the current facility.

Never put all of your eggs in one basket, but renovation would be a poor option.

The Bee has an article today showing a record response to the recent poll about the Kings new Arena. Read the article HERE

4,116 responses to this poll. Of those, 2,251 supported leasing parking operations to help fund an arena. City officials said that such an agreement could generate up to $200 million toward the $387 million project.

This poll is not scientific and does not reflect the “will of the people” but it is a good response to a newspaper poll and shows a majority in favor of the plan.

Rookie Point Guard Isaiah Thomasis just 5’9″ tall but as fans have seen during pre-season and the last game (20 points, 6 assists) he can play in the NBA.

Thomas was the last player selected in the 2011 draft. Just like you can’t teach height, you can’t teach heart and Coach Smart knows that Thomas brings a big heart. He is not intimidated and just jumps in the middle of things and takes charge.

Should Thomas start at PG? Not yet say these guys. In fact, they say he is not the “true” PG the ‘net says he is and they back that up with data.

The best of this article is how they explain the fact that Petrie has always loaded the team with “impure” PGs via trades and draft. Check out the list

December 14th

Had to change the channel. Dallas 52-23 at half. Kings set record. For team franchise fewest points EVER in a half. Previous was 25. That was in 1957.

Also just set a record for fewest field goals in a half. 8.

My god.

The chances for a new Arena and keeping the Kings here may have dropped another notch.

December 15th:

What’s Next for the Sacramento Kings? This ESPN article drops 5 sports writers into a conversation about Westphal, cousins, Evans, Keith Smart (or coach TBA) and the future of the club.

December 16th:

Rubio & Fredette are both rookie Point Gurds. Both came in the league with a level of anticipation from fans. That is where the similarities end.

Tonight Ricky Rubio will school Jimmer Fredette and take another step toward Rookie of the Year (ROY) honors. The Kings should have drafted him when they had the chance and waited out his time in Europe. Imagine where they would be now and the future they would have.

Per Bee article today “Sheedy has been beating the popular vote drum since it became apparent she was in a clear minority on the council in opposition of the arena. She will almost assuredly demonize as undemocratic any councilmembers who do not vote with her in this naked ploy to politicize the ESC push. Sheedy has a well-documented feud with Johnson over endorsements in council races, and is using the arena push as a political prop.”

p.s. nice comback to the Kings last night and nice play (again) by the bench and DeMarcus Cousins with 19 REB.

December 20th

Todays Bee article indicates that a “bigger role” for the bench has resulted in wins. Heck, the team has won only 3 games in the season.

Anyway, I would say defined roles and some consistency in the rotation has resulted in a better bench and the bench hs contributed significantly to the wins.

But it’s not like you just flip-flop, put the bench in as starters and win 60 games. Coach Smart says “Your stars close games out, but your bench keeps the game manageable until your stars can get in there and close a game out.”

December 21st:

Nice game last night as the Kings handed the Spurs their first home loss. This is the first back-to-back win for the Kings this season and they have John Salmons to thank for the win. Tyreke Evans contributed his best shooting game of the year as he hit 10 of 19 shots.

Chuck Hayeswalked thru a practice on Friday and was happy to be there, but is not ready to be in a game just yet. Read the Bee article about Hayes’ progress at the link above.

Tonight is the second half of a back-to-back road game, and second on a three game road trips: Kings invade the Memphis Grizzlies tonight. The Grizz won the first game between these teams back on January 3rd.

Some guy on Twitter said “You mean, the Grizz had four players with 20+?”. I don’t even need to see the score.

January 24th:

Early-Bird Extensions? Uhm…NO. the Kings have 3 players eligible to an Early-Bird Extension (4th year players approaching free Agency). JJ Hickson, Jason Thompson, and Donte Green. All are good/interesting but no where near great players. Hickson is the most interesting case as the Kings gave up a restricted First Round pick and Casspi. of course we need get the perennial not-an-All Star SF Salmons, so no fear there.

The Kings will not offer an extension to Hickson or any of the others it seems.

They have invested the most in Greene hoping he would have a break-out year at some point. They have also had great expectations for Thompson.

I’m glad to see they are not wasting extension mmoney on any of them including JJ.

Read the details at the link above.

Chuck Hayes is clearedfor contact. The Kings will be glad to get him back in the lineup. Hayes went at it full-contact today. We’ll see how long before Hayes is in the lineup.

Marcus Thornton did not practice (deep thigh bruise) and will not be available for Wednesday’s game.

Cousins and Evans are both sporting ankle injuries. They did not practice and we will see if they play tomorrow.

Tyler Honeycuttwas sent down to the D-League earlier in the season for “development” that he could not get in Sacramento because he was given limited minutes. The Kings recalled him to the NBA roster because he “was getting limited minutes” down in the D-League Reno.

January 26th:

Smarts interviewafter the loss to the Nuggets January 25th. Listen carefully to Coach Smart.

Tonight we enter….the State of Jimmerand it seems he will get the start in Utah.

If we are lucky we will get Chuck Hayes back tonight. He is like a real Floor General out there on the defensive end, always barking orders. And his teammates listen.

January 29th:

No Jimmer heroicsagainst the Jazz last night? I did not watch but I know the outcome. Jimmer missed the final shot with an opportunity to tie the game with a 3 pointer. He hoped to get a foul call but got neither the shot or the call.

Like many fans I questioned the decision to drop down in the last Draft, take Jimmer when it seemed better players were available plus get John Salmons and his contract as well.

So far it hasn’t worked out for the Kings. But the team has a lot more problems than Jimmer or even Salmons.

The team seemed to play better last night than most of the season, and Evans had an excellent game with 9 assists and 31 points. If Evans could play like that every night (I’m not asking for those stats, but that kind of game) I would annoint him as the PG for many years. That is what Petrie and others see in Evans. Unfortunately, it is not what they usually get from their coveted Guard.

Tyreke Evans has had some “PG” momentsin games where he seems to be learning how to play the NBA point, rather than pushing himself to score 20. The NBA always has a lot of Guards who can score 20. Most play SG, but the league has always had its’ share of 20 ppg PGs. Evans is now having games like the last one with 31 points and 9 assists. That is an impressive effort. That is All-Star work. And he followed that game with another against Golden State. Against those Warriors Evans had this line: 22 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists. You cannot ask more from your young guard. Those are impressive games. Those are All-Star numbers.

Perhaps because of the first two, the Kings have stayed in more games and even won a couple. This is not a 50-50 team, but seeing them stay in games during the second half (heck, during the 1st Quarter) gives fans hope. The link takes you to an article about Smart’s advice to Evans on how to play the point in the NBA.

Coming outof Indiana Smart was a revered PG who scored first. He scored at will, was the Final Four hero. and people expected that kind of career for him. But he had to learn to play the point and that means distributing the ball, running the team on the floor, and “seeing” the defense so that you can maximize the opportunities on each possession. His NBA career was short, but he learned to be a better PG.

You want a new Arena? Fans need to see an effort and a road leading to a better team.

And, while we are at it…

,,,Kevin Johnson doesn’t playPG anymore, he is just the Mayor of Sacramento. I didn’t vote for him and probably won’t the next time. But KJ was one of the best PGs in the game and I remember screaming at my TV as I watched the Kings miss the chance to draft the hometown boy.

Follow the link above and read about Johnson’s career plus 4 other top NBA PGs.

February 3rd:

Like many fans I did not expect a lot from Isaiah Thomas.

But check this video:

The game? Kings vs Trailblazers February 2nd. Kings win. How?

The play of the game by 5’9″ Thomas against the Blazers Wesley Matthews. Yes, Matthews is a Guard. But he is 6’5″ and 220 lbs. Check it out.

That is a HUGE block by Thomas. Thomas has given us a number of highlight plays this season but this a the best one.

February 4th:

“When he’s on the floor, you don’t worry about him being posted up, because he’s going to fight to keep a guy from posting him up,” Kings coach Keith Smart said.

Thomas has received more playing time because of his confidence, leadership and performance on the court, Smart said.”

More about Thomas at the link starting the quote above.

February 5th:

Nice win over the Warriors last night in OT. Of course, that was after the team’s familiar 4th Quarter fade dropping a 1 point 3rd quarter lead. But they fought and came back, got in to OT and won.

Today the newspaper has an article about the owners, asking if they can (will afford to put a top flight team on the NBA floor. I don’t know. I know these guys are still hecka rich, but apparently not necessarilly billionaires.

More important to me they just have not seemed interested in the team or in the future of the team for the last 3 or 4 years.

“But, in the long run, how can they? The Kings have been a relative bargain basement operation for years. Team payroll is roughly $48 million, just above the league minimum and dwarfed even by small market teams such as the Memphis Grizzlies,who have a $71 million payroll.

That the Kings are the youngest team in the NBA – and therefore likely to have lower salaries for inexperienced talent – is beside the point.

The key question is: Will Maloof Sports and Entertainment ever again have the financial resources to field a competitive team?”

Also, an article is about Jimmer Fredette. Fredette has had a poor rookie year even by “poor rookie year” standards.

For a #1 pick with a lot of hype coming out of BYU, Fredette does not appear to be adjusting the way some fans and Kings management (or owners? wanted. I’m not so sure he will ever be All-Star material even in a good year, but Fredette is smart and someday will learn someone’s system. He will contribute to a winning team. Be nice if it was here before he gets traded or moves on (the roads that appear for almost every player at some point).

He has spent two games on the bench and the other rookie, 2nd round pick Isiaah Thomas, starred in a win. Twitter has exploded with peeps unhappy that Jimmer hasn’t played, and even some suggesting that if he was a starter the Kings would be guaranteed playoff material. WTF?

As I said, even in a good year that ain’t happening. Always hard to know if people actually believe the garbage they write or if they are just having fun stirring things up.

“Six weeks into the season, the Kings are convinced of this much: They regard the 6-2 Fredette as a shotmaker and superb deep shooter who will benefit immensely from a traditional offseason devoted to adding one-handed floaters and runners to his repertoire.

One of his biggest problems is a tendency to overpenetrate and jump-stop in the lane, attracting clusters of defenders like teenagers to free cellphones. His conflict is partly attributable to the fact that he wants to be perceived as more than a one-dimensional gunner.

Having been a floor leader throughout his career, he also is learning the nuances of moving without the ball, of understanding angles and how to utilize screens and ball/head fakes that freeze defenders.”

What about that privatizing City parkingto raise money that would be used to partially fund construction of a new Arena?? The article looks at similar efforts in other cities and countries. Some have been successful and others not. In Chicago it was apparently successful. But it has been a “public relations nightmare”. For politicians the public relations problems are more important than success and more important than a new Arena to keep the Kings.

And, to end this busy day—yes. Seattle does want the Kingsto replace their beloved Supersonics. If Seattle taught other cities how fragile their relationship can be with their team, now they hope to teach other cities how they can do two tough tasks. Build a new arena. Attract an established team.

Twitterland blew up a week ago on this subject. Now it just does not seem to be dying down.

“Seattle officials have been in talks for eight months on plans to build a new arena, and have had their eye on the Sacramento Kings,according to news reports this weekend in Seattle.

The Seattle Timesreported it obtained documents Friday indicating that city’s mayors office has been working behind the scenes with a San Francisco businessman who hopes to buy a team and bring it to Seattle if an arena can be financed. The documents include an email updating Seattle officials on Sacramento’s efforts to build a new arena to keep the Kings here, the Times reported.”

Be careful. Seattle isn’t Anaheim. The fans are still pissed off that they lost the Supersonics. They want a team and they want it bad. And the league wants a team in the area long before they want a 3rd team in Los Angeles. Maybe even before they want a team in Sacramento. We shall see.

But in the end, it does not matter what city wants the Kings. Anaheim, Seattle? Someone else? What does matter is what the people of Sacramento want. And how well officials can explain to the people why it is important to keep the Kings. It’s about jobs and income, yet I don’t see anyone stressing that.

Jobs and income. Jobs and income. Should be a constant mantra.

“David Stern feels as if he has given Sacramento one last chance, and he made no secret of that last May. The Maloofs’ damned press release announced they’d keep our team in Sacramento for 2011-12 even quoted one of the brothers saying that Stern had assured them that they’d receive a green light to move our team if a funding plan didn’t come together by March.”

If the good folks in Sacramento don’t understand that (or don’t believe it) the Kings will be playing in some other city next season or the following season for sure. And then it doesn’t matter much which city that is. Except I guess to the Maloofs. And some of the residents in the Kings new home.

DeMarcus Cousins had another massive game. Cus scored 28 points with 19 rebounds. Isaiah Thomas had 17 points with 7 assists and continued to play the best man defense on the team.

February 9th:

The Arena vote last night allows the basis for possibly privatizing parking spaces in order to raise money to partially fund the new Arena to move forward. It was a close 5-4 vote to reject a plan by one conservative councilmember to put the issue on the ballot in June. That allows the City time to work thu the challenges to put a proposal together for the council to review by the NBA deadline.

Putting together the council proposal and satisfying the needs of all of the other partners (County Board of Supervisors, other Cities and Counties in the Sacramento area, the NBA and the Kings and everyone else PLUS a ballot measure just would never happen. It is not real clear that the team can put together everrything the NBA and City will require without asking for a delay.

The vote could have easily gone the other way, with a 5-4 vote to support the ballot measure request, which would have derailed the entire Arena effort. Certainly what many Arena opponents would have liked to see happen.

On Monday only one member supported the ballot measure proposal. On Tuesday two more joined.

“A June vote on Sheedy’s ballot measure would have come after a March 1 deadline imposed by the NBA for Sacramentoto devise a plan for a new arena, or risk losing the Kings. Arena supporters said it also would have shown the league there is limited support for the project at City Hall.

“It would have, I think, sent a very negative message to the NBA and the people who have been working with us trying to make this happen,” Councilman Rob Fong said Wednesday. “It would have been a vote of no confidence.”

Read the full article at the link above.

Home game, national TV, top-tier opponent, team playing well. What more could Kings fans want? Oh, well yeh. New Arena & new owners. A couple of upgrades at position. But this should be good!

Great gamedefeating the best team in the West, the OKC Thunder. Durant & Westbrook played and played well, but in the end the Kings took the victory. Their 4th win in the last 5 games, and they “shoulda” won all 5 games.

“Oklahoma City looked as if it was about to put the Kings away midway through the final period. The Kings trailed 95-87 with 5:56 left in the game after a three-pointer by Daequan Cook. But Sacramento’s Marcus Thornton hit back-to-back three-pointers as part of a 10-2 run to tie the score 97-97 with 2:07 to play.”

The Kings did not make a basket in the last 2 minutes. They won this game on free throws during those crucial minutes.

“The Kings took a 98-97 lead on a free throw by DeMarcus Cousins with 1:37 to play. Russell Westbrook answered with an 18-foot jumper with 1:19 to go, but the Kings scored seven unanswered points to build enough of a gap to win.”

LaHood lauded Sacramento officials for their efforts to develop the railyard. He did not comment on the arena issue. His California visit, he said, was focused on promoting high-speed rail. City officials want high-speed rail to connect with the arena, a transit center and other development in the railyard….

…We get a chance to control our own destiny here,” (Johnson) said, “and if we just laser focus on our business, this will be the final resting place of the SacramentoKings.”

The Seattle Times almost seems to be complaining that Mayor Johnson is trying to keep the Kings in Sacramento. And Jonson (pretended?? Had to be) that he “forgot” that the Sonics no longer play in Seattle.

“This is his signature issue,” said Marcos Breton, a columnist for The Sacramento Bee. “The only reason the Kings are still in Sacramento is Kevin Johnson. I’m convinced if the previous mayor were in place now, they’d be in Anaheim already, or going up (to Seattle). He has a personal relationship with (NBA commissioner) David Stern that he is able to trade on.”

Are you a Kings fan? Go to the link above and vote “NO” the Kings will NOT move to Seattle. In fact, vote “Hell NO”.

“When we ask the question 10 years from now – “How do you like me now?” – will we hear favorable comparisons to Indianapolis, Kansas City, Minneapolis and Charlotte, among others, or be regarded as an underperforming community co-opted by petty politicians and others who couldn’t get things done.”

The Mayor doesn’t read this blog. Neither do the Maloofs or the NBA. That is obvious since they don’t take my advice!!

But I believe I am on the side of the majority.

We want the Kings to stay in Sacramento. We understand that the team needs a new Arena and that the team provides jobs and money to the community. We want an Arena that can be used for other things: music, circus, ice shows all of those crowd pleasing activities.

We are willing to make an investment of some public monies. We are not willing to finance the whole thing. We believe that other communities (Roseville, West Sacramento, Stockton, etc have an obligation to join us and bear some of the burden.

We believe the railroad area is and always was the best place for a new Arena.

Some of us even believe that Sacramento should attract other sports teams. The NFL, MLB, or???

Yes—none of those things happen overnight. But NONE of those things happen unless Sacramento gets it together and builds a new Arena.

It is time to get the plan together, quit dicking around at City Council meetings and approve the plan. Get the NBA backing, have the Maloof’s support the idea publicly…what else?

February 13th:

The Arena faces its next test on Valentine’s Day evening at the City Council.

“The Sacramento City Council is expected to vote on whether to move forward with talks on a potential lease of the city’s parking garages and meters to a private operator. Mayor Kevin Johnson and other arena supporters are counting on the parking to fetch an upfront payment of as much as $200 million – about half the money they say is needed to build an arena.”

The team working on the issue has cut the list of potential companies down to 10 out of 13 who had initially responded to the Request for Qualifications.

If the council approves city staff will work with the 10 companies to craft a lease plan. “Simultaneously, city officials hope to negotiate a term sheet by March 1 with the NBAand AEG, a private entertainment giant, saying who will pay how much.

When and if that’s done, staff plans to return to the council asking to formally solicit parking bids.”

February 14th:

Tonights City Council vote should be close. Perhaps 5-4. But the proposal should pass and then city staff will be authorized to work with bidders on putting together the final parking proposal that will come back to the board for the real vote.

Valentine’s Day is a time for DeMarcus Cousins—He is an interesting guy.

A six-game road tripis not good even when you are above the .500 mark. For the Kings it is…well, it just is. And it starts—with the Bulls right in the Windy City. Fortunately for the Kings, Derrick Rose will sit out tonights road trip opener with lower back spasms and Richard Hamilton continues to be sidelined with a right thigh injury. The Kings have a cvhance in game #1.

“By a unanimous vote, the City Council voted Tuesday night to allow staff to enter into detailed talks with 11 firms seeking to lease downtown parking. An agreement with one of those companies is being counted on to provide up to half of the $387 million bill for a new downtown sports arena.”

“It was not—despite what you might have picked up from some breathless Sacramento Bee columnists—a do-or-die moment for a new Sacramento Kings arena. It wasn’t make or break. It wasn’t even put up or shut up.

It was just one more in a seemingly endless series of incremental baby steps. The Sacramento City Council was expected on Tuesday night (after press time) to approve a list of 10 “most qualified” companies bidding to take over the city’s public-parking system. The lucky company would get the city’s parking revenue for the next 20, 30, maybe 50 years, in exchange for a large upfront payment to help build an arena.”

February 15th:

Linsanity whipped the Kings tonight in NYC. No defense again tonight. Lin only scored 10 points but he dropped a career high 13 assists. But no offense either as they lost 100-85.

The Knicks are on a great streak with Lin at the helm. Like every fan in the NBA I am asking “Why didn’t (insert your team name here) draft/pick up/steal that Lin guy???”

Best thing about today? Check out this photoof the Kings posing with Heavyweight Champion Mike Tyson.

February 16th:

The Arna proposal has two recent positive votes from the City of Sacramento and the City (and fans) are looking for a positive move from the owners, the Maloofs.

According to the Bee the proposal for th Arena expects the owners to kick insome $85 Million.

“The city seeks a contribution of about $85 million from the Maloof family, which owns the Kings, multiple sources said. But it’s not clear if the NBA – which is negotiating on the team’s behalf – will agree, and negotiations are far from complete.

“I’m encouraged by all the things I’m hearing, out of all directions,” said Sacramento developer David Taylor, who is part of the arena team. But he added, “There are lots of business points that need to be agreed to.” More on this at the link above.

The article at the abov link suggests we should not worry—too much. It would simply be too expensive to buy the team and move it to Seattle. Assuming the Maoofs want to sell, which they don’t. Or that they get forced to sell, which is probably not in the cards.

“We are talking at least $400 million for the Maloofs, since the Hornets sold for $310 million when revenue sharing didn’t exist. Throw in another $400 million – the price tag of new Seattle arena. And I’m sure owners around the league will charge a relocation fee (it cost Clay Bennett $30 million to move from Seattle to Oklahoma City), so tally that in. Also the Kings owe the city of Sacramento a $75-million loan.

And there’s more.

The Maloofs also owe the NBA close to $100 million.

Is your calculator out?

The sum of those five parts add up to roughly $1 billion to relocate the Kings to the Emerald City.”

The plans for a new Seattle Arenawill be revealed tomorrow. Does it mean Sacramento should worry? No, it means if other cities can plan and build arenas Sacramento certainly can.

Read the NBC article at the link above.

February 17th:

DeMarcus Cousins this morning was announced as out for today’s game against the Pistons.

Cousins back-spasmed his way to 26 points and 15 rebounds tonight. Player of the Game. Nice job. But Kings lose.

This article explainsthat the Kings forgot about Cousins down low as he was having one of his best games and the best of the players on the court.

Cousins has the ability to dominate the middle, the rebounding and the scoring in many games th Kings play. But to really dominate the game he needs his teammates to acknowledge that. They have to want that. Otherwise it breaks down to one-on-one.

I am not going to pretend I am smarter than any player or coach on the floor. Or even than the other fans. But I am smart enough to know that in basketball you need to hav a teammate that can take over the game in the 4th quarter, especially lat. Cousins is that guy in most games.

Sure there are other guys. Evans. Even Thornton in some games. But not Salmons or Fredette or some of these other guys who suddenly decide “I’m the man”. You’re not. You’re a cog in the wheel. But when the cog decides to become the wheel? The machine breaks down.

Kings should have won that road game against the Pistons who are the Eastern Conference version of the Kings.

February 18th:

This makes no sense to me: Sacramento considers a surcharge fee for out-of-towners who park in downtown lots on event night?

This writer is from Yolo County and says he would not mind paying extra. What makes no sense to me is how they intend on determining who is or isn’t from Sacramento. And why shouldn’t Sacramentans kick in some extra pennies? Or is that what is really being considered? $3 extra for everyone to park. So parking fees (which may go up when it is privatized) plus penalty fee plus the highest ticket in the NBA plus food plus trinket plus a beer. What else?

There comes a point when the cost affects your attendance even if you have a new Arena. Especially when you have indifferent owners. And a team that doesn’t win.

But, these pollsaree being circulated this weekend asking folks if they would support a $1-$3 surcharge for out-of-towners who park in downtown lots.

I dislike Cuban eve more today with him suggesting he wants to see an existing team “relocate” to Seattle. He is “against any expansion team” being placed there. He did vote against allowing the SuperSonics to move if that matters. He seems to think that it does.

The Kings have mostly played well in this road stretch and shold have (shoulda) won these last two games.

Cleveland has a lot of connections for Sacramento. Keith Smart started his coaching career in Cleveland. Sacramento acquired JJ Hickson from Cleveland and expected big things. Hickson has yet to pan out and got 16 minutes of court time Sunday, scored zero points. The player Cleveland received for Hickson was Omri Casspiwho grabbed a career high 12 rebounds last night.

February 21st:

No, Evans has not been demoted. But for the past few games he has been starting at SF with Isaiah Thomas starting at Point Guard. This is a good change, though I think Evans fitsbetter at SG. Smart thinks he can use Evans as a “Point Forward” a term I have never appreciated. Read about it at the link above.

In the last game though Evans pushed out 9 assists while playing the SF spot most of the game. I think this change is what has allowed the King to be in the games at the end with a chance to win. Now they just have to figure out how to finish the game when they have it in their hand in the last minute or two.

Thomas does certainly providethe Kings with a different spark at the PG spot and the team csn appreciate the ignificant upgrade Evan provide at the SF spot. Salmons can sit. If only the team could trade him and his contract.

This has been Salmons’ worst year. Chuck Hayes was a bit out of shape at the start of the season (who wasn’t this year?) and got worse after his injury when he was not even able to work out for awhile due to the injury to his shoulder. Since the injury he has not played well. Jimmer has not been the spark the owner expected (mot analysts are not surprised) and Evans has not been able to get back to his Rookie year level. The coaching change maybe? Or the lockout? And others have not played well.

Mostly the team as a whole has not played as if they understand the word “team” and constantly revert to one-on-one play often (too often) against Star level opponents.

Thomas has played as a teammate. He understands hi role (her hsd only been part of the team for a few months and yet he understands his role. Seemed to understand from day one. And he is the last player selected in the draft. Not what you expect from that draft slot. Imagine if he was 6’4″ or 6’6″? Heck imagine if he was really 5’10”. I love thi little sparkplug.

“The team has agreed to a substantial contribution, both directly from itself, but also by catalyzing AEG to be interested. In effect, whatever money AEG puts in is because of give-backs by the team … so we see that as a team contribution,” Stern said. “Whether it ultimately closes all the gaps, we’ll know as we negotiate continuously and I fully expect that we will be negotiating in Orlando (this weekend when team and city representatives meet for the All-Star game)”

Read more at the link above.

Stern’s assertion that money from a potential developer (AEG) is “team” money is a joke on its’ face. If Sacramento decides to accept that as true, no problem. But it i till laughable from this fans perspective.

Have the developer kick in money? Yes. But the Maloofs damn well better kick in their own dimes.

Do the Maloof’s want a box score line for Thomas’ points because they “catalyzed” him by drafting him??

February 22nd:

Washington Wizard’s Center JaVale McGee’s goaltending spike of Francisco Garcia’s basket in tonight’ game. The Kings win this one 115-107. McGee needs some serious help, I just dunno…Isaiah has another Thomas-anity game!!

The two said they and their negotiating teams will work through the weekend during the All-Star break in Orlando, and hope to come to a final agreement on a financing plan by Thursday, March 1, the deadline Stern previously set for a deal.”

Consequently the City Council has tentatively moved the February 28th meeting back to March 6th in the hopes of having a completed deal to review and vote on. Read the full article at the link above. We are getting close to having a beautiful new Arena developed in what will be the hottet area in Sacramento—the Railroad Yard.

Makes me want to buy a house or a condo there!!!

February 23rd:

Cousins & Evans voluntarily sitout last night 4th quarter as the reserves come from behind to win againt the Wizards. The teammates were the nightd primary cheerleaders for their team.

Jimmer Fredette’s brothergoes Rogue on Twitter calling for Coach Smart’s ouster, calling Smart an “assistant at best” and asking for a “real” Head Coach to replace him.

Jimmer says that his older brother, T.J., “apologizes” but no official word from T.J. Fredette seems to indicate he took the brothers Twitter account away or something.

“The weekend poll of 500 city residentsby SurveyUSA, financed by the Think Big Sacramento task force, shows that 64 percent support the plan while 22 percent are opposed.”

Read the remainder at the link above.

Editorial to David Stern: Sacramento will not be rolled. Stern suggested in an earlier statement that the NBA views any money from possible Arena developer AEG as “Kings” money or “Maloof” money. This editorial says Stern cannot pull the wool over the taxpayers eyes on this one.

Stern is an ass and we should not be fooled.

February 24th:

Orlando Arena is a beacon for Sacramento. This Sacramento Bee article suggests that Sacramento can learn a lot from the struggles Orlando had to build an arena that is now hosting the 2012 NBA All-Star game week.

That makes sense. Sacramento & Orlando are similar market-size (19th and 20th) and have faced similar challenges in keeping their teams and their stars. Of course, Orlano has some pluses that Sacramento lacks. Orlano is a tourist attraction for other reasons, the city also has other major sports.

As the weekend opened and Stern worked the crowd, he was asked often about Sacramento, the Arena and the Kings.

“The fact this year’s event is being held in another small market?

That a series of intense, last-minute negotiations were needed to salvage an Amway Center agreement that involved city and county representatives and required major contributions by the Magic’s billionaire owner, Rich DeVos?

Coincidence? Perhaps.

But Stern isn’t about to let an opportunity pass.”

Discussions betweenthe City and the County could lead to County parking lots being include in the package that could go up for bids, with the funds being ussed to build a new Arena in Sacramento.

“Asked by the city for help in financing an arena, SacramentoCounty officials countered Thursday, saying the city could receive the money from parking at three county lots during arena events – if the city commits at least $500,000 a year to county parks.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and City Manager John Shireyquickly responded with a joint statement calling the county “a true partner” and saying its offer represents “a positive step forward.”

Read more at the link above.

Is Cousins gaining maturity or is Smart just a good fit? Cousins has played like an All-Star at the Center position since the Kings’ coaching change. Is it Cousinss or is it Smart? I think a combination of things. It’s time that Cousins grew up. We sometimes forget just how young he is. And Smart’s approach to young players has always seemed to provide immature players with an opportunity to grow and contribute.

Cousins isn’t jut growing up, he is providing leadershipto a team that badly needs it. As Couin has said the Kings don’t have an All-Star on the team. No one ha won a ring. The young guys have been left to find their own way. With Smart’s help. A coach who as an NBA player played just a few games in the NBA. His career bloomed overseas.

Cousins put no stock in Bynum’s dissas he helpsTeam Chuck win in the reformatted Rookie Game portion of the All-Star Weekend. Cousins scored 18 points with 11 rebounds and 3 assists in a game that showcases Guards not Centers, now called the Rising Stars Challenge.

“Three games ago, Thomas dropped 23 points and 11 assists while dueling with 2011 first-round pick Kyrie Irving and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Two games ago, he wowed LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat with 24 points in an eventual loss. Last night, he went 1-7 from the field in the first half against Wall’s Wizards, then turned it on for 16 second-half points to snatch away a pivotal road win.”

February 25th:

Stern on Sacramento: “we have some points that may or may not be bridged.” Says March 1 deadline stands, big meeting Sunday (February 26th).

What points and what bridge?? I dunno. Dude never makes sense to me.

Februry 26th:

Well, today is the day. Or, today is A day. The City, the Maloofs and the NBA will meet in Orlando to try to wrap up a dealthat the City Council can actually pass in a week or so. The Sacramento Bee newspaper is chock full of articles about the arena today.

I will give you the links and a couple of interesting quotes. Read the article at the link above which is on today’s front page. And yes, it is above the fold.

So let’s start with David Stern. A man who can never seem to make a straightfoward statement about anything. “The Maloofs have stepped up, the city has stepped up,” the commissioner added. “We’re having very intense conversations. But sometimes the best-intentioned and most fervent workers don’t quite get to the finish line because there are things that separate them.”

Does he think it will happen? Or won’t happen?

Stern goes on to assert that HE has opened two buildings in Sacramento. He has not built a building, never hammered a nail. Didn’t kick in money for the current or previous arena in Sacramento. Yet he wants to claim them. “I’ve opened two buildings (in Sacramento) and I’m looking forward to opening a third,” he said, referring to the original Arco Arenaand the current Power Balance Pavilion.”

And our Mayor, who often reminds me of Stern: “The (Kings have) said they’re going to make a significant contribution and what we’re negotiating is what is that number and how do we close the gap,” Mayor Kevin Johnsonsaid.”

No quotes from the Maloofs. “The Maloofs could not be reached for comment.” The Mayor and the Commissioner could be reached, but the (fill in the blank) owners could not be reached? But the paper promises that the Maloofs will join the converation “for the firt time ever”. You want an arena? You want the city to pay for most of it? But you won’t comment publicly and you hsven’t at down with the city until just days before the deal has to get done?

I have not been in discussions about this arena. But I have been in meetings with the city about other big ticket issues, with the Mayor before he became Mayor and with previous Sacramento Mayors (who I thought more highly of. We miss you Mr. Mayor) But I have never seen such a group of disengaged, untrustworthy folks assembled for something so important to the future of my city.

The chief topic of the conversation today, and the final sticking point of the arena deal, is the contribution from the Maloof’s. How much? And don’t tell me how much your developer will spend. “The city is asking the Maloof family to chip in between $70 million and $90 million to the $387 million project, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations who was not authorized to speak because talks are ongoing. Most of that would be in the form of upfront lease payments, but would also include an estimated $25 million from the sale of land the family owns around Power Balance Pavilion.”

And today is “High noon” for the arena deal and maybe for Sacramento. “…for Sacramento?Think big. Think so much bigger. Folks, this is Super Bowl Sunday. What happens behind closed doors this afternoon at an area hotel will determine whether the proposed arena deal dies a brutal, abrupt death, with Kings co-owners Joe and Gavin Maloof unable or unwilling to participate further, or the parties proceed toward a public-private partnership, a Thursday deadline and a City Council vote March 6.”

So, links to 3 stories and quotes from each. I recommend you spend part of your Sunday reading them and keep your ears open at least for tonight’s news. We shall see what happens. We won’t hear details today but we should have some kind of indication from these bombastic, ego-inflated guys. And if not…we will meet at the Council meeting March 6th.

February 27th:

No agreement on the Arenayesterday but the sides will meet again today after breaking off discussions at 10 pm last night. Sounds kind of like contract negotiations right? Same players too which is scary.

Because Stern doesn’t believe in negotiating. He never gives in. And the Maloofs plead poverty. Broke millionaires who may be one billionaire…at least close.

Mayor Johnson says that the Maloofs told him they “want to be in Sacramento.” So why can’t the Maloofs say that in public? Why not say it to the people of Sacramento? Because we are wondering.

Oh…that’s right. Because last year the Maloofs said they “want to be in Anaheim” and this year at least one Maloof seems to be saying he “wants to be in Seattle”. And the family has always “wanted to be in Las Vegas” but couldn’t because of the old gambling stuff.

Any other cities in the running?

So here i where things are:

the people of Sacramento have worked hard to come up with a decent deal to get the arena built.

Throwing public money and assets in the pot

Agreeing to renegotiate the signifcant loan the Maloofs already owe to the city, and

constantly showing vocal support for a losing team.

The Maloofs

refuse to talk to the public

Have not said they “want to be in Sacramento”

Don’t seem to be working toward improving their product or their image in Sacramento

“Everyone has a good mindset and is ready to problem solve today,” the mayor said.

The “problem” remains bridging the gap between what the city is asking the Maloof family to contribute and what the Kings’ owners will agree to. Asked if the sides were moving forward, co-owner Joe Maloof said this morning, “I hope so.”

“George Maloof, who directed the team’s threatened relocation last April, remains the most skeptical of the siblings. He is the brother who develops projects, he says, which causes him to be more cautious. And true to his nature, during a quick late-afternoon break, he looked like a nearby Disney character – Grumpy.

If body languagecould talk, his was screaming for a high-speed train away from the railyards. Late Sunday night, he said only, “There are a lot of issues we have to get into.”

Monday evening February 27th:

Maloofs will give $75 million upfrontin Arena deal. This is better news than I expected, I anticipated something like a $50 million promise “If” everyone else kicked in their pieces first. The family surprised me.

So this offer is pretty incredible and I think it gets the Arena done. It will be hard for the City Council to fail to put their dollars in this deal.

“The city of Sacramento and the Kings announced a tentative deal today to build a new arena in the downtown railyard.More than half the money would come from leasing the city’s parking to a private operator, but the team’s owners say they’ve also agreed to pay $75 million upfront.

George Maloof, the family member who pushed the hardest to move to Anaheim last year, said he believes the deal with Sacramento will allow the team to sustain itself financially for years in Sacramento,a small-market city. “We’re going to have a new building, we’ll be able to attract players. It will be much easier.”

Read more at the link above and get ready to celebrate after the City Council votesto approve this deal on March 6th. A new Arena. A good draft this summer. New exciting construction in the downtown railyard. The Kings stay in Sacramento baby!!

“It’s game over!” said a jubilant Johnson, who hugged Stern. “Sacramento deserves to win, and this is our chance to win. I’m so emotional, I can’t even articulate it.” (bold is mine)

“It was Sunday afternoon, and Mayor Kevin Johnson sat across the negotiating table from the Maloof brothers, whose family has owned the Sacramento Kings since 1999. He looked them in the eye and asked, “Are you committed to Sacramento?” If they weren’t, he said, there was no point continuing the talks.

“Each of them, one after another, said, ‘Yes, we want to be in Sacramento,’ ” the mayor recounted Monday, saying he hugged Joe, Gavin and George Maloof. “I knew at that point we had an excellent opportunity of making this deal happen….

… As negotiations stretched into a third day, Johnson called AEG, the giant arena operator the city is counting on to provide $50 million toward the project’s cost in exchange for running the facility and collecting much of the revenue.

The mayor asked AEG for more. The company agreed, pledging nearly $60 million….

…Meanwhile, the NBA also agreed to help. NBA Commissioner David Stern said Monday he assembled approval from the league’s other team owners to “in effect authorize me to be as supportive as we can be in this process, so that we could cement the future of the NBA in Sacramento.”

While Stern did not release details of that support, a source said he was indicating the league’s willingness to provide a financial safety net to the Maloofs to help them come up with their share of upfront funding for an arena.

Above we see one view of the Railyard next to downtown Sacramento. The Kings new Arena will be constructed here. The site is so large that it will also contain our new tra nsportation center for buses, light rail and heavy rail (Amtrack) and significant residential & retail construction. The former railroad property held the largest train repair yard west of the Mississippi until it was closed some 20 years ago. It sat vacant for many years as a plan was developed and implemented to clean all hazardous material from the ground, air & water.

Sacramento fans leaped over many challenging difficult days to get here and be able to celebrate (1) a new arena that will be built, and (2) a basketball team that will stay in Sacramento and (3) a win over the Jazz last night.

“At the first timeout of the game, with 5:33 left in the first quarter and the Jazz leading, 15-14, Gavin and Joe Maloof walked to center court amid a standing ovation. Gavin then addressed the crowd.”At the end of the day it’s all about this,” Maloof said, indicating the crowd, which was loud despite blocks of empty seats scattered throughout the upper level….(Mayor)Johnson waved to the crowd and walked along one sideline, shaking hands with fans.When he reached Gavin and Joe Maloof, he hugged them and then led them back toward the center of the court, where he held the brothers’ hands up in a gesture of triumph.“Sacramento, I’m so proud of you as a community,” Johnson said.“We did it. You’re going to see basketball here for many years.”

Read the full story at the link.

Nice to have a home win to celebrate the arena deal. It’s nice to have an arena deal to celebrate. It will be extremely difficult for the City Council to vote this deal down. It will be hard even for the most dedicated anti-King council member (yes I am talking to you) to even vote againt the arena. But you will.

But, that’s ok because the arena deal will pass. Sacramento and the NBS will get AEB & the Maloofs on the fast track andd we should have a beautiful new arena sitting surrounded by vacant property (vacant for awhile) open for the 2014/2015 season. By then we will have two good drafts. Maybe a couple of good trades. At least two Free Agents who decidethey want to win in the new arena.

It will be a new and better team playing in a new and better arena. On the way to winning. This will be exciting.

*The Kings will sign a lease obligating the team and any potential future owners to remain in Sacramento for 30 years.

*The city will allow the Kings to refinance their existing $67 million city loan.

*A five percent surcharge will be applied on all tickets sold at the arena, for sports and non-sports events. That money will go to the city.

*The city receives a percentage of net profits earned by the arena operator.

*The anticipated prep and construction cost estimate for the arena has nudged up from a previous $387 million to $391 million.

*Another $3 million of the $391 million is slated to come from a public campaign, led by the mayor and Councilman Steve Cohn, where residents can purchase engraved bricks and plaques to be included at the facility site.

More details and info at the link above

2012 Draft: A lot of crazy trade rumors out there as we approach the trade deadline.

The draft isn’t so crazy though. This article shows that Sacramento, though struggling, has not played bad enough to fall into top lottery positions. And the rest of the season is mostly home games which means that Sacramento should have a better 2nd half than they did a 1st half.

Look back thru thiss post and my previous King’ post and you see that I have always believed this day was coming. I had fewer doubts about the big man. He may still provide Kings fan & coaches with perplexing moments and games when hi head is in some very strange place. But he i a big and talented young man. There is not a team in the league who would not want him. Today. Tomorrow. Next year. Probably 10 years from now barring injury and some other unfortunate incident.

He is that incredibly good. The best draft pick in Sacramento history. Pair him with Evans and we have a duo of draftees that can play together for a long while.

21 double-doubles in just 33 games during a lockout ravaged season. Cousins deserved an All-Star berth. I hope that next year he gets his first of many.

“This young man is playing at a great level,” Kings coach Keith Smart told The Bee’s Jason Jones, “and he doesn’t know how to play yet.”

He also leads the league in fouls and has 8 technicals. There is the “doesn’t know how to play” stuff. True too.

Dwight Howard is certainly the best Center in the league. But who is second? Want to vote? Go here

Back in that old time capsule I really believed it would happen. I’m not a big basball fan. Haven’t been since the old Dodger days of the late 1950s thru late 1960s. Brooklyn and Los Angeles. Especially Sandy Koufax.

When the A’s farm team the Sacramento River Cats, opened the sstadium in West Sacramento and has continued to win big almost every single year that they have been here that dream rekindled.

Put a MLB team in Sacramento and I would guarantee we would have a NFL team in less than 10 years. Maybe 5.

And where else could the A’s go? Realisticly?? They still want to land in San Jose but the Giants won’t let that happen. And the Giant have hitory in the Bay area. And clout in the State Capitol. And the Giants have a fan base in the Bay that includes south to San Jose. And the Giants sell out. That mean they generate revenue that the other teams share.

Right now the A’s generate nothing.

So assume MLB blocks the A’s from relocating to San Jose. Where do they go?

And April thru October? Sacramento has perfect baseball weather. A good fan base. If folks thought the King fans were rabid and supportive…meet the acramento baseball fans.

Details, schmetails releaedabout the arena. If you are wondering how much or who is giving or where it’s going click the link and read on.

You have heard or seen the basics so far but todays article gets below the muscle on this agreement.

I’m still feeling confident that the City Council will pass the agreement next week. But the negative Nellies are coming out for their last chance. On the Editorial page of the Bee you can read a very long well written edictorial from a couple of young guys that want the parking deal but don’t want the Kings (or the arena). I won’t even link to it here, I told you where to look.

Kings lost to Clippers last night & they get a chance at the Lakers tonight. The Masked Man from Los Angeles hits town to avenge their loss at the start of this season.

March 2nd:

Kings lost to the Masked Mamba lat night. No big deal. Reserves played full 4th quarter except a few minutes for Thomas and they came back well. Scored 33 points in the quarter more than the Kings can usually squeeze out.

But Jason Jones Bee reporter tweeted a little tidbit about the Kings putting Tyreke Evans on the trading block. Sure got folks upset today. But I ask: who should we expect to see teams interested in and who could the Kings get a decent trade for? Cousins maybe, but Evans is the man.

He does everything he is asked to do and never complains. On the other side he has not played up to his rookie season of brilliance. But the team moved him out of the PG spot and have him playing SF. I would have expected SG but the team has a glaring hole at SF and Evans has done a great job.

“The renderings show the arena perched on a tightly-packed site just north of the existing I Street train depot, with a small courtyard and a light rail station between the two. The arena’s main entrance would face the back of the depot, near the intersection of 5th and H streets. The city’s planned new transit center would sit on the arena’s west flank….David Taylorof ICON/Taylor said his company would need to break ground by next spring or early summer to have an arena built for the 2015 NBA basketball season.”

See the rendering at the above link.

Voisin suggest that Stern has been the good guy in all of this. The voice of calm and moderation. David Stern? Big article read it here.

A lot of numbers today.

Numbers about the arenaand how it will (may) fit within the Raiyard land…240 acres of Railyard, but the City currently owns just 4 acres and is building a new tranit center as well as the Arena. The site must fll of the needed infrastructure. Roads bridges light rail and heavy rail and bus/car traffic foot traffic.

Numbers about the first-half Kings play and numbers about the bench. The bench played the full fourth quarter in the last game. And almost brought the team back from a 20 point hole against the Lakers.

League wide in the first half of the season the Kings really only have done well in one statistical area.

Offensive Rebounds. The team is 1st. First. That is almost all Cousins and throw in some Thompson and some bench play… Greene mostly.

And the Kings score points. But they let their opponents score more. Or else they just don’t score enough. If the team scored 110 per game and played the same semi-crappy defense they would be above .500.

Kings pick up 2012/2013 option on Coach Smart’s contract. They aren’t a top-flight team, but I like what he is doing.

“Keith has done a terrific job of taking control of the direction of the team,” said Geoff Petrie,the Kings’ president of basketball operations, in a written statement. “He is active, engaged and working hard to develop our young players along with a complementary style of play.”

And, the Kings & AEG also like the looks and direction of the new Arena….it will be a moneymaker which means good positive things for our community!

“AEG could make $5.7 million in annual profit running the building, according to a projection released last week by the city. The deal is so promising for AEG, in fact, that it chipped in another $9 million last Monday without getting anything in return, according to a source familiar with the negotiations but not authorized to discuss them.

“In a historic vote, the Sacramento City Council approved the financing plan Tuesday night for a $391 million sports arena in the downtown railyard.By a 7-2 vote, the council accepted a nonbinding “term sheet” agreed to by city officials, the Sacramento Kings,arena operator AEG and the development firm slated to build the project.”Undertand this. Two politicians voted AGAINSTa non-binding proposalto build what will turn out to be the most important feature of Sacramento’s future.”It was a festive scene inside council chambers and in two other rooms filled to capacity. One speaker broke into song. Fans waved signs. And when the council vote was tallied, the crowd of more than 500 erupted.”Point Guard Isaiah Thomas was in the crowd.Council members Sandy Sheedy and Kevin McCarty are the two Council members who voted against the proposal.”This is much more than a vote for an arena or for keeping the Sacramento Kings in our city,” Shirey told the City Council. “It’s also a vote about your vision and hopes for our city and our region.”

7 Kings score in double figures. I think everyone hit the court tonight with your final 110-97 Kings. I take it back Outlaw was DNP-CD. Box score courtesy of the Sacramento Bee @SacBee_News

Dallas Mavericks vs. Sacramento Kings

Team

1

2

3

4

Score

Dallas

22

22

28

25

97

Sacramento

31

23

34

22

110

Officials: Derrick Stafford, Eric Lewis, J.T. Orr

Attendance: 16857 Time Of Game: 2:05

Stats: Final

Dallas

MIN

FG

FGA

3P

3PA

FT

FTA

OR

DR

TOT

A

PF

ST

TO

BL

PTS

S.Marion

32:01

7

12

0

1

0

0

2

6

8

2

1

1

4

0

14

D.Nowitzki

28:56

5

13

0

0

3

3

1

8

9

1

1

1

3

1

13

I.Mahinmi

22:42

5

8

0

0

2

3

6

1

7

0

3

0

1

1

12

V.Carter

16:56

0

5

0

2

0

0

1

1

2

2

2

0

2

0

0

J.Kidd

21:35

2

8

2

7

0

0

1

1

2

4

2

0

2

0

6

L.Odom

22:04

2

7

0

3

0

0

3

1

4

2

1

0

0

0

4

J.Terry

26:22

10

18

3

6

0

0

1

2

3

3

0

2

1

0

23

S.Williams

19:20

3

3

0

0

1

2

2

0

2

0

2

0

2

2

7

R.Beaubois

25:19

1

6

0

1

3

4

0

4

4

4

2

1

0

0

5

B.Cardinal

8:53

1

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

1

2

0

0

0

3

D.Jones

9:50

3

3

0

0

1

2

0

1

1

2

1

2

2

1

7

Y.Jianlian

6:02

0

2

0

1

3

4

0

2

2

0

0

0

0

1

3

B.Haywood

DNP – Coach’s Decision

TEAM TOTALS

240

39

86

6

22

13

18

17

27

44

21

17

7

17

6

97

PERCENTAGES

FG: 45.3%

3PT: 27.3%

FT: 72.2%

TEAM REB: 8

TOTAL TO: 17

Sacramento

MIN

FG

FGA

3P

3PA

FT

FTA

OR

DR

TOT

A

PF

ST

TO

BL

PTS

T.Evans

29:38

6

15

1

3

4

4

2

7

9

2

2

1

0

1

17

D.Greene

20:21

4

6

1

2

2

2

0

1

1

2

2

0

1

1

11

D.Cousins

30:46

6

11

0

0

3

3

1

3

4

5

2

3

5

2

15

M.Thornton

29:28

6

9

1

3

4

4

2

0

2

2

0

0

0

0

17

I.Thomas

24:00

5

8

4

6

0

0

0

2

2

5

0

1

1

0

14

J.Salmons

22:11

5

8

0

2

0

0

1

1

2

2

2

0

0

0

10

J.Thompson

18:34

2

7

0

0

0

0

4

4

8

2

1

0

2

0

4

F.Garcia

21:16

4

9

2

4

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

3

2

2

10

J.Fredette

17:54

3

8

2

7

0

0

0

1

1

1

2

0

1

0

8

C.Hayes

19:04

2

3

0

0

0

0

0

5

5

4

3

0

1

0

4

H.Whiteside

3:24

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

T.Honeycutt

3:24

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

T.Outlaw

DNP – Coach’s Decision

TEAM TOTALS

240

43

85

11

27

13

13

10

24

34

25

16

8

14

6

110

PERCENTAGES

FG: 50.6%

3PT: 40.7%

FT: 100%

TEAM REB: 8

TOTAL TO: 14

POINTS OFF TURNOVERS

Dallas 17

Sacramento 28

March 11th:

Can a new Arena helpLake Tahoe effort for the 2022 Olympics bid? And for Summer Olympic trials, basketball trials, NCAA track championships…the things we attracted when the Kings were Kings??

A new arena will help get Sacramento visible again, but it is a rededication by the Kings owners, the new arena operators AEG, and our local politicians that will help sustain that effort. The Kings must become a contending team.

They don’t need a ring, as nice as that would be, they need to have a mindset from owner to ball-boy that they will contend each and every night.

“Within hours of the arena proposal’s passage, Sacramento publicly emerged as a significant player in the Reno–Tahoe bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Speaking at a journalists convention Wednesday in Lake Tahoe, Nevada Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, chairman of the Reno-Tahoe Winter Games Coalition, identified Sacramento as an important partner in the Olympic bid and a possible site for figure skating,hockey or other events….

Salt Lake City and Lake Placid,N.Y., are expected to submit bids, but Denver is widely regarded as Reno-Tahoe’s major competition.”

Read all about it at the link above.

Today’s paper states that the Kings of today seem to be refocusing themselves on game preparation. Is this because of Smart? Or because the team is playing a little better? The last month the team is shooting better (many nights over 50%), passing more often (assists are up) and winning some games as they get into their huge nine-game homestand.

“Smart still emphasizes the Kings are far from a finished product. But what he does like is the improvement. After being the worst shooting and assist team in the NBA most of the season, the Kings have crept to 29th in shooting and 28th in assists.”

Tonight the Kings host the Atlanta Hawks, a young team with the polar opposite record than Sacramento. But if the Kings pass well and shoot well they can contend tonight.

March 13th:

Time to break into the old Piggy Bank!

7% share in the Kingsis up for sale. No one seems to be sure how much it is worth and are looking forward to seeing a value set so they can extrapolate and figure out a current value for the team. The Maloof’s really don’t want to see that happen right now bbut it may be out of their hands.

“Longtime minority owner Bob Cook’s stake in the team is likely to be auctioned off as part of Cook’s personal bankruptcy.“It’s (Cook’s) preference that it not be sold, but he understands it’s going to happen,” said Donald Fitzgerald, an attorney for the bankruptcy trustee overseeing Cook’s affairs. “I think he understands that it’s probably inevitable.”Cook’s ongoing personal prolems don’t really have anthing to do with the Maloof’ss or the Kings…except they do because Cook owns that little chunk of the Kings at a ver important time.March 15th:No moves at the deadline.” So the team that finished last night’s loss to the Detroit Pistonswill be the team that finishes the season, barring a free agent pick up of some kind.” Petrie had already said the team would not be involved in trades, so no big surprise. The disappointment for me is this: No trades last off-season, no top-tier Free Agent pick-ups, our best drafte was taken with the 60th and last spot in the draft (heck maybe the best rook in the league??), no trade this year.Now the Bee article says the team is “focused on the draft“. I assume that mean they are doing their job and evaluating the players because they have no idea where the team will pick.So what is it this team is doing?March 16th:This stupid Bee reporter gets it rightwhen she says “Doing nothing is better than doing something stupid”. Not the first to say it, but still right is right.But she is way wrong with her advice to put John Salmons back into the starting lineup? John Salmons? Sure he does offer some defense but the risk i hiss ball-hogging dribble out style of play and he an’t seem to hit the basket anymore.So the Coach wants Cousinsto hit 55% of his shots?I want him to improve and Coah is right that the kid can make big improvement bby dunking putbacks on ORBs instead of him trying to tip them in with his fingers. He’s a big strong guy (and he knows it) who should be finishing hardat the rim. Then he can begin to move up to 50% because so far he has not shot more than last seasons 44%.”Cousins spent a good part of his offseason working on finishing strong around the rim with dunks. That he doesn’t do it more is even a mystery to himself. More times than not, Cousins ends up trying to tap the ball in with one hand or tries to get the ball in off the glass.“I really can’t tell you why I do it,” Cousins said. “And when I go back and look at it, I just say, ‘Why didn’t I just go ahead and dunk that?’ “Smart said it will take more repetition for Cousins to make that a habit.”March 17th:Happy St Patrick’s Day to you & the Boston Celtics!!Kings beat the Celtics last night in a huge game scoring 129 points without Evans who is out with the ankle sprain from the last game.A big 3rd quarter and 36 point from Marcus Thornton led the Kings to a sweet win, breaking their 3 game home stand loing streak.Even though the home team won there were a lot of boos. I swear I thought I was watching this game in Beantown so many people were booing the Kings.”Smart jokingly provided a solution for (the ) problem (of losing to teams below the .500 mark).“I’m going to call (NBA Commissioner) David Stern next year and say that we’ve decided we want to play all the top NBAteams and forfeit everyone else who is below our record,” Smart said. … (Focus) is completely different every single time when we have a top-line team coming in.”

Smart expects to lose Assistant Coach Jim Todd to the Knicks now that former-King Mike Woodson is their Head Coach.

March 18th:

Kings host Timberwolves and Jason Thompsonjust posted his 3rd double-double in a row and he’s only in the 3rd Quarter. 11 points, 10 rebounds so far on Sunday. Click the link on JT’s name for details as he had posted consecutive 21-point, 15-rebound games. The game before those two performances, Thompson played only 15 minutes against the Warriors and finished with nine rebounds. JT was replaced when the Warriors went to their “mall ball”. His response?

“…. I took it on myself – I can play better. And sometimes even if the matchups aren’t there, if you play well, it’s tough to take a guy out.”

“AEG’s chief executive Tim Leiweke will lead a delegation that will meet with Mayor Kevin Johnson, members of the Maloof family, which owns the Sacramento Kings, and others involved in the project. A press conference at City Hall is scheduled as well.It will mark AEG’sfirst significant public statement on the project. The firm has made a non-binding commitment to pour nearly $59 million into the sports and entertainment center. In return, it would get a big share of the profits from the building.”Read more here.Kings waive PF JJ Hickson: Just before the 2011/2012 Lockout shortened season bagan the Kings made their big trade. F Omri Casspi was gone to Cleveland for PF JJ Hickson. By March 19th Hickson was having his worst season ever and aat the age of 23 was faced with being traded and being waived in the course of just a few months.Hickson never really had a good opportunity to fit in with this team and certain never actually showed that he could fit in. I don’t think he had a singe good game.”Hickson, who averaged career highs of 13.8 points and 8.7 rebounds in 28.2 minutes in his third season with the Cavaliers in 2010-11, was expected to provide frontcourt athleticism and bring stability at power forward.In his first season with the Kings, however, Hickson’s production dropped significantly as he adjusted to a new team and a coaching change after just seven games.”

Now, the Kings not only lost a decent back-up SF in Casspi ut they owe the Cavvaliers a First-Round draft pick and the have a hole in their roster.

Surely they could have gotten something in a trade? Hickson’s name was the ony one being tossed about bbefore the trade deadline but ou think they could have gotten a 2nd round pick? A dozen donuts? Something?

March 20th:

On the Vernal Equinox, as the Moon shifts around…AEG visits Sacramento and says “Sacramento ‘is a good bet’ on arena deal“.

“Tim Leiweke, the president of international arena operator AEG,told reporters at City Hall that his firm is making “a huge commitment” to the project…”

Leiweke was introduced to Sacramento for the very first time today as the sun pushed its’ way thru all of the rain clouds we have had. mayor Johnson called AEG “one of the world’s very best…

…Leiweke said many in his industry have criticized his firm’s commitment to Sacramento. But, he said, “it’s the best market and the best fans I’ve seen anywhere in the NBA.” He added that California is AEG’shome state – the firm also built and runs Los Angeles’ Staples Center – and “it’s time that we put the state back to work.”

AEG is world class as far as arena operations go, Sacramento could not do any better. And to see then kick in extra tens of milions of dollars just as the arena deal was about to get completed shows that they are indeed committed to this project. I hope the owners are as committed.

As the 3rd Quarter begins tonight the Kings lead the Memphis Grizzlies by a score of 66-56. We’ll see how the 2nd half goes.

Thompson has another good game putting in 40 minutes as the Kings win their 3rd in a rowafter losing 3 straight. Scored a lot of points, double digits in steals…just enough defense as they win 119-110 as they shot more than 53%.

March 21st:Group of downtown activistsfile suit to stop Sacramento’s new arena from being funded. “The group, called Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed to Pork, or STOP, filed papers with the city clerk’s office for what it calls the “No Public Funding of Arena Act.” The group hopes to gather an estimated 30,000 signatures by late May to quality their measure for the November ballot.”

Everything has opposition. Click the link and read more about it.

March 25th:

Well…let’s see.

Kings come off horrendous roadtrip and lost three in a row at home to teams that were less than .500.

They then beat the next 2 teams by like 25 pts per game. Everyone is scoring, passing, rebounding.

They then lose two games by one-point each game. God, I hope not 3:03 left in game.

March 29th:

April fool?? Kings owners balk at paying a share of the “pre-development” costs for the new arena.

The cost is small yet the Maloof’s are refusing to pay any portion of the costs to start discussions and work on the new arena. Their reason? They say it’s “because (the Kings) are the only tenant” in the building.

My guess? And it is just a guess, either:

they have no (extra) money

they hope to roadblock the arena

“A Maloof family spokesman in Los Angeles told The Bee today the team does not feel that it should share in pre-development costs because the team is only a tenant in the building, which would be owned by the city….Yet the Kings owners agreed in principle to pay $73.25 million “toward development and construction of the (arena),” according to a term sheet negotiated three weeks ago by the city, the team, the NBA and other private partners. That document states, “such amount shall include pre-development expenses paid by the Kings.”

Two hours later: The NBA comes to the aid or the rescue of Sacramento. Or the Kings? Or the Fans? Or the developers? Or the City Council??? Or…..

“The NBA today came to the rescue of Sacramento’s arena deal, agreeing to chip in $3.26 million in pre-development costs after the Kings’ owners balked at paying the money”

A bit later the real story is “UPDATE: The NBA will actually chip in the first two weeks’ worth of predev funds.”

So doesn’t that seem to mean that the Maloof’s were the responsible party after all? Or that the court probably would have found so. Years later of course…

“(Team Spokesman Eric) Rose and Kings co-owner George Maloof both told the Bee today they are not dropping out of the deal, but they have numerous questions.

Maloof downplayed any notion that the deal may be collapsing.

“We had some general feasibility questions for the city,” he told The Bee. “It’s a major deal and that’s how it works,” he added.”

This is the second time this month that David Stern and the NBA have had to step in and save this Arena deal when the Malof’s have decided to balk and turn their backs on Sacramento over very smal amounts of money.

As much as I often distrust Stern’s motives and dislike his actions I have to stick up for the guy here. He should be (and may be) twisting the Maloof’s arms high up behind their backs to get them to do the right thing, I apreciate and suport his actions to save the deal.

Amidst a four-game losing streak at home we find this about DeMarcus Cousins, the Kings, Seattle & sushi.

March 30th:

Kings owners say they disagree with many of the financial requirements for the new arena. This AFTER the owners, the NBA and the City reached agreement during meetings at the recent NBA All-Star game.

The wobbles by the owners will add fuel to the fire started by arena opponents in the City.

“…the disagreement comes as the City Council prepares for a pivotal vote on the project – whether to commit $6.5 million toward the pre-development expenses. The vote is set for Tuesday and represents the first significant expenditure of city dollars toward the $391 million project.”

This is not good & the Maloof’s know it. You cannot agree and sign your name to the documents, and then say you disagree with many of the components in the documents. I mean, WTF?

Do you and I get to do that when we uy our house or our car?? Uh…..HELL NO!!!

Read the article here. I won’t place anymore in this post. It is crap.

Kings win in Utah 104-103, but it puts them into a terrible draft position. Damn nice win against the Jazz tho. Nice game DMC, stealing one from the Jazz “with his sixth consecutive 20-point game and fifth consecutive double double with 27 points, 14 rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots.”

“…much of the sellout (Utah Jazz) crowd at EnergySolutions Arena took pleasure in booing and heckling Cousins on Friday night.When the game was over, they had even more reason not to like Cousins. Cousins’ free throw with 3.8 seconds left in the game was the difference in the Kings’ 104-103 win over the Jazz.”

And the family gripes. And gripes. And gripes. Like their arms got twisted to stay here and get a $400 million arena. And fans that love the team. And supported the family. And the family gripes.

So just a few weeks ago everyone celebrated the agreement between the NA, the Maloofs and the City of Sacramento leading to agreement by the City Council and then in the past two days—the Maloof’s refused to spend money on development and the Cit has followed suit. The only party offering to go ahead and spend some money?

The NBA. This is not good. Even if it just leads to a delay, this is not good.

Top Rookie for March? PG Isaiah Thomas. Thomas was also Rookie of the Month in February. So two consecutive months. What would have happened if he had started from day one? Hard to tell but the kid has the confidence to have been quite a conversation piece. If only he was 6’4″. Hell if only re as a real 5’10”.

“Thomas led all conference rookies in assists (4.9 per game) in games played in March and ranked second in scoring (13.6 points per game).” More at the link above.

April 3rd:

Mayor Johnson lashes out at the Kings owners for their attempts to aoid contribbuting money for pre-deelopment costs calling them “disingenuous” and apparently will again push Stern and the NBA to move Maloofs into a “for sale” spot with the Kings.

I have been pushing for that end for a few years now.

The Maloof’s attorney said the team owners have serious doubts whether the city can succeed in getting a downtown arena built by September 2015, the opening date the NBAhas said it wants.

The Maloof’s have become the biggest reason the Kings cannot win.

The City Council will vote tonight on the issue of providing money for arena development costs.

“In his letter to the city, Zolke (the Maloof’s attorney) also challenged the city’s ability to get an environmental impact report completed in time to start arena construction next year. Zolke cited traffic issues, and the potential that the project would dig up historic items in the ground, causing construction delays.”

“…(Mayor Johnson) said (the Maloof’s) statements lately have “caused me pause, to be honest and to put it mildly.”

April 4th:

The City Council approvedmoving ahead with pre-development and spending money on the tasks required to move the arena forward. Last night the vote to approve stood the same as the vote approving the term sheet just a few weeks ago. The Council approved the environmental and site plan work.

That is despite the fact that the Kings owners threw up yet more roadblocks to a final development of the arena, to the ground breaking.

Last night the Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg rebutted the Maloof’s who own the Kings and refused to pay their fair share of pre-development costs, made pulic pronouncements that it was unfair to expect them to pay any money as mere “tenants” and had their lawyer write a letter stating that they have many “issues” with the agreement (the “term sheet”) that they signed their names to just weeks ago in partnership with the NBA and the City of Sacramento.

Their “issues” make it look as if they suddenly aren’t sure they want to move forward in Sacramento. The truth is these have been their tactics for nearly a decade as they placed roadblock after roadblock in front of folks who would have an arena already built here in Sacramento.

Leader of the Senate, Steinberg said the Maloof family was full of “tactics and antics” and he is right.

For whatever reason the last thing the Maloof’s wantto see happen is a new arena being built in Sacramento. When one is built we will have to drag them to the tabble and hold their hand while they ign their names on any agreements to play ball there.

My point is that these ‘tactics and antics’ are not new. I am certainSenator Steinberg knows this as I am certain Mayor Johnson kniws this.

Marcus Breton has it right in the Bee: “Sacramento is going to be hard-pressed to build a downtown arena to house the Kings as long as the Maloof brothers are the Kings owners…the Maloofs have always found a reason not to pay up when it was their turn. They’ve always thrown up roadblocks when everyone else was ready to take on the monumental task of building an arena here.

It’s always been them. Ten years ago, when you would ask them what they wanted in an arena, they would say “whatever the city wants.” They wouldn’t even send representatives to early arena meetings where former Mayor Heather Fargo would get crushed for suggesting local restaurants help out….

Remember when the Maloofs stormed out of a City Council meeting during one arena discussion?

Or when, at the big kickoff to a 2006 initiatives campaign to build an arena in the downtown railyard,they shocked everyone by going off script and raising doubts about the project?…

…They walked away from the process and then made a hamburger commercial touting their net worth at $1 billion. The sales tax measure to build them a free arena went down in flames by an 80 percent to 20 percent vote….

…Think about that for a minute: The Maloofs don’t want to pay money while the clock is ticking on critical deadlines to do environmental review and site planning. Delays in this process will mean the arena won’t open in 2015 as everyone wants.

The Kings need new owners and David Stern is the one who can help make this happen. The other NBA owners will shake at the possibility the NBA could dispose one of their own, but they have to worry even more about owners like the Maloof’s remaining in their midst.

Did the Maloof family wink and nod at Sacramento? Never intending to actually make or follow-thru on the arena deal?

“City officials described the “term sheet” negotiated that day as a nearly complete agreement. Attorneys would dot the I’s and cross the T’s in the coming weeks and write up contracts, they said.The Maloofs, owners of the Sacramento Kings, however, say they disagreed with key elements of the term sheet from the get-go and that they had expected significant changes before any deal was signed.City officials maintain they did not know of the Maloofs’ misgivings until team owners told them at a March 20 meeting they would not pay a $3.26 million share of pre-development costs. The team wanted that stricken from the term sheet.”In the meantime the NBA has followed thru, putting up “pre-development” money when the Maloof family has refused to do so.The City of Sacramento has followed thruon key votes for pre-development issues and money, and voting to make way on environmental and site issues. While the votes have been contentious they ended up in the same -2 favorable layout that the approval of the original “term sheet” fell. Sacramento continues to fully support the deal.The owners of the Kings? No support of the deal at all. Just Maloof’s give just refusals and “misgivings” and lawyers, and letters, and leaks to the media. And as Shakespeare said, the Maloof’s do “protest to much”, publicly saying they love Sacramento while courting other suitors like Anaheim and Seattle…and even Las Vegas still (??)All of the manueverings by the Maloof’s puts into question their intent to take the next step in the process, which will be the signing of the tenant lease agreement by April 15th. Less than two weeks from now. The City is ready to sign. AEG, the operators of the new arena, are ready t sign. The Maloofs? We will know by tax day. They won’t be able to hide. They will sign or not sign and then we will know.Before the signing date the NBA meets with the owners, and after putting up money of their own (money that comes from all of the othger owners) may well twist the Maloofs’ arms once again as they have done off on for the last decade.The league wants this deal. Sten wants this deal. Sacramento has gathered to support this deal. The Maloofs have until the 15th of Apil to finally support the deal.”In further evidence that any tenuous trust has been broken, team attorneys filed a voluminous request two weeks ago with the city to view all memos, emails, letters and other documents exchanged between the city and the NBA in the last year, as well as communications between the city, AEG, the city’s arena consultants, other local governments and officials regarding the arena.Kings officials declined an interview request Wednesday. But the filing indicates the team’s owners are searching for any information shared by the city, the NBA and AEG in the months leading up to the drawing up of the term sheet, and raises questions about how open the lines of communication were among the Maloofs, the city and the NBA throughout the yearlong process.”What is it the Maloofs are looking for? Something they believe can be used to back out of the deal that they want so much to avoid? Do they think there is some nefarious e-mail between Stern and Johnson that will allow them to escape to Anaheim??”Stern told the Salt Lake City Tribune on Wednesday he is “more hopeful than I am confident right now” about getting an arena deal done.“In a week, our owners will be coming in for meetings … and we’ll see where it’s going,” Stern said. “Very, very hopeful that it gets on track.”…”We are hopeful that the Board of Governors will resolve the issue consistent with the agreed-upon terms in the term sheet,” Assistant (Sacamento) City Manager John Dangberg said.”Read this full article here.

“The public event is scheduled for Thursday, April 12, from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the first floor lobby of City Hall. City staffers plan to discuss the proposed arena site in the downtown railyard, integrating the arena with the planned intermodal transit hub and linking the project to historic features of the railyard.

That same day, the owners of the Kings will be in New York at the NBA’sBoard of Governors meeting, where a dispute over who should pay pre-development costs for the arena project will be discussed.”

“My hope is to come out of the board of governors meeting with a confirmation that this is back on track,” Stern told The Bee late last week. “Everyone involved deserves that.”

He’s right. The cost of the complex is an estimated $391 million. The cost to the region if this project fails? If prospects for jobs, hotels and parking around the transportation hub are squandered? The damage is incalculable, though, safe to say, economically devastating. (Visit the downtowns of Indianapolis, Los Angeles,Kansas City, then let’s talk.)”

Maloofs travel to New Yorkfor the NBA Board of Governors meetings with the other NBA owners. The Sacramento Kings owners will be looking to gain support from the other NBA tteam owners in their attempts to back out of the agreement they reached with Sacramento City and the NBA just a few short weeks ago.

“We’ve done everything we were asked to by the NBA,” said Assistant City Manager John Dangberg, the city’s point man on the arena. “We are hopeful the NBA and the team can … bring back a solution.”

For the Maloofs, the meetings could be pivotal. The family is expected to tell owners they never formally agreed to deal details, and that there are several elements in the tentative financing plan that need work before it gets their signature.”

Read more at the link above and watch for leaks and reports aout events thru the rest of this week.

Five straight losses…..great game by Cousins though, wow!!

Marcos Breton today in the Bee:” Kings’ deterioration not just an issue on the court”

As Breton explains he attended a Kings game this weekend. Why? Why did this reporter go to the Kings game with his family?

He could not find anyone to buy his tickets. Even at a deepdiscount. He didn’t want to go. Not because of the team losing games. Not because of the lockout or the owners. He had other things to do. But no one would buy his tickets tthat he almost gave away…..so he went.

“…I couldn’t sell my tickets for a fraction of what they were worth is the same reason seats go empty in the former Arco Arena:Substandard ownership has allowed a rabidly followed franchise to deteriorate into a distressed property.I just didn’t appreciate how distressed it is until we pulled up on Sunday and I got a good look at this mess in broad daylight.”

Read this articleif you still don’t appreciate why Sacramento is so unhappy with the Maloof’s. And if you don’t believe the Maloof’s are out of touch with the fans….read this article.

Substandard ownership. This has een going for for the last 4 or 5 years. I don’t understand how the NBA has allowed owners to behave this way or to mismanage their property this way….

And the Maloof’s are in New York. Why? To meet and address the NBA Board of Governors. The ones who run the league. Who make the rules. Who tell the owners what to do.

The Maloofs want to say they don’t like their dealwith Sacramento which will give them an almost free arena. Their want tto cry and stamptheir feett. They don’t like the people that negotiated he deal.

Negotiators like Sacramento. And Negotiators like Stern. And negotiators like the Maloofs.

That is who negotiated the deal they don’t like. Sacramento. David Stern. The Maloofs.

Giveme a fucking break. They don’t take care of the arena they have. They are getting a new arena. They only have to pay a small portion of the costs. And they don’t like it.

Why? Probably because they still want to move to Los Angeles. since the NBA won’t let them move to Las Vegas.

I hope Stern says Kiss My Ass. He is capable of that. And I hope the other owners that are the Board of Governorssay….too bad. You don’t like it sell. Cause you have fucked up your team and that costs us money. They can do that.

A group of 25 Sacramento businessmen will hold a media eventon April 12th while the Maloofs address the NBA Board of Governors. The group will reveal their letter to that same Board of Governors.

What are they asking for? New ownership for the Sacamento Kings. Oh yeh. Watch your news, this is getting interesting.

When you have pissed off the businessmen in your town selling tickets will become difficult. And selling, leasing or renting those luxury sky boxes that really pay your bills? Don’t think so buddy.

Six straight losses at this time in the season could give Sacramento more ping-pong balls for the lottery

Initially he was not expected to meet with them, but something has changed. It appears Commissioner Stern asked Johnson to fly to New York and told the Maloofs to meet with him on Friday. Good job David.

“Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson is expected to fly to New York on Friday to meet with NBA officials and the Maloofs, owners of the Kings, in an effort to pull the arena financing deal back together, a spokesman for the team told the Bee today.According to a Maloof spokesman, NBA Commissioner David Stern told the Maloofs this afternoon Johnson would be flying in. He asked the Maloofs to meet with Johnson tomorrow.”

…Meanwhile, in a day of high drama here, the Maloofs made a detailed 90-minute pitch to the board where the team owners expressed their dissatisfaction with the non-binding “term sheet” that was approved by the Sacramento City Council in early March, and with other aspects of the plan.”

They are “saddened and disappointed ” that members of the community would ask for the sale of the team after “all the Maloof’s have done for the city” (not a direct quote. I can’t bring myself to put a quote from those assholes in my blog. Sorry but it i my blog. But I do urge you to read the family’s statement, most probably penned by their lawyers like everything else they write about Sacramento, the Kings, or the fans.

I must admist I have not yet walked thru it. I just can’t pay attention to these ling sons of biatches.

I believe that the Maloofs are like our last coach. They have stepped on one too many nerves. And they are on their way out of town…it’s just a matter of when.

Mayor Johnson let them know todaythat Sacramento will not help to renovate the current arena, which was named Power Balance Arena but they went broke and left town too.

It’s such a shame because the Maloofs were once Kings/ They had a great thing going, the town loved them because the town loved the team. And now what??

They have no friends in Sacramento. And I don’t think another city would take them because of this mess and because everyone has seen how they have treated the citty that supported the Maloofs so well and for so long. Why would anyone want them?

“After a two-hour meeting with the Maloofs, who own the Kings, the mayor said Sacramento had done everything it could, and it was clear that the family had developed second thoughts about joining with the city to build a new arena. “I don’t know what the Maloofs plan to do. I know they don’t plan to honor their commitment to a downtown arena,” he said….Earlier Friday, NBA Commissioner David Stern had nothing but praise for the city. “It’s not going to happen, but I can say the city has stepped up,” he said. “We have nothing further to give, to cajole, to yell, or all the various ways I’ve tried to keep the parties on track to get what we thought was a win-win in Sacramento.”So the NBA says yes, the City of Sacramento says yes….I think the players would say yes…and the Maloofs? The Maloofs say fuck you Sacramento, fuck you.So the only way the Kings stay is without the Maloofs. Will they sell? It doesn’t appear that they will. So now what? They will leave the city that loves the team so much. The city that bleeds for the Kings.So Stern flew the Mayor out to NYC just to hear the Maloofs say that to his face. Maybe Stern thought…or hoped…that the Maloofs could not do it face to face. But they had a room full of lawyers and economists and what? Thugs?Wherever they go no one will care as much as Sacramento.Want to read about George Maloof’s love for the current arena and his desire to renovate that place and just keep playing there? Go here and here and here and…….oh hell, that’s enough.OK, I walked thru the Kings Power Point (link is above). It just seems to be a request to move to Anaheim. I hope the Anaheim folks are not that stupid. It’s not like the are desperate for a team. They have two already. Seattle….now they are desperate.Pray Sacramento, pray.What is this? 8 straight losses? This was the worst.The Kings must be in shockwih the arena fallout. Just one month ago they celebraed a brand new arena in an exciting new area of Sacramento. And a secure future here forf the next decade.And now….8 straight losses. Tonight to OKC 115 to 89.No one but Thomas played well. Evans scored 2 points. Cousins scored 9.Shoot me. I can’t watch this.

Whether on purpose or out of stupidity the family ruins an opportunity to build a brand new arena in the best possible spot for ery little of their own money. They have done this before, walking out of City Council meetings, throwing a phalanx of lawyers into the mix, sending questioning (threatening?) letters to the city via the Bee and more.

This time they started shooting into their own feet almost before the ink was dry on the deal.

Een though they appeared, grinning and shaking hands at the City Council meeting when the City gleefully signed off on the deal, promising to build a new arena with the best possible development partner, AEG along with the NBA.

All of this the Maloofs had handed to them on that siler platter….and what do they do? They screw it up. Again.

Read the artticle above.

April 14th:

The day after the ugly divorce. After the Maloofs tell Sacramento “We don’t love you anymore. But we will keep our old arena under the bed just in case we want some freebies.”

It baffles me that they will not sell the team. Hell they sold their father’s prized beer distributorship. The business that he built the family fortune with. They sold most of the Palms Casino and their Las Vegas monster rock. The investment that they believed would convince the NBA to allow them to move the Kings to Las Vegas.

So read todays article close and reflect…reflect on the fact that the Maloofs werecontributing just $73 million to the arena deal. And of the 73?? $67 million was NBA money. Not Maloof money, NBA money. So Sacramento was putting up the lions share of the bucks, the NBA was putting up the Malooffs money and insted of saying “Thank you” to everyone and getting it done, the Maloofs say no.

That on top of the fact the Maloofs still owe Sacramento how much? $73 million from before? Was that the number?

So, it eems that the Maloofs are broke. They do not have money to put toward an arena. But they won’t accept a free arena. Have they hocked it to the devil?

“There’s reason to be angry at the turn of events. If the Maloofs had wanted to embarrass Sacramento on a national stage, they brilliantly succeeded with the televised Manhattan press conference they orchestrated Friday.But along with anger, Sacramento should show a little humility. We’ve seen this switcheroo from the Maloofs before. As the idiom goes, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me….Of course, there is little reason to believe the Maloofs are serious with this latest trial balloon. As we said Friday, they don’t seem to have the financial means to invest in an arena project, just as they don’t have the means to field a competitive team. And yes, there is that little matter of the city’s $67 million loan to the Kings. How is that going to be paid back?Clearly, the Maloofs are just stalling for time, and the NBA appears to be stalling as well.Commissioner David Stern made all the right comments about Sacramento keeping its commitment, and the importance of Sacramento for professional basketball. But he knows better than anyone that renovating the Natomas arena won’t help a small-market team bring in the kind of revenue the NBA wants and demands. As Stern said in 2006 to The Bee, the team “needs a state-of-the art arena with club seats, suites and the ability to attract big events.”

“Sean Wolf held two tickets for Sunday’s Kings home game in his hands Friday afternoon, the sound of the Maloofs’ morning news conference still swirling in his head.Wolf tore up the tickets like so much confetti, only there was no celebration in his voice.Wolf, 28, of Roseville, who for years has arranged his schedule around Kings games, promised he won’t be going to Power Balance Pavilion for a while – and maybe ever – echoing the angst and anger of fans across the region reeling from Friday’s news that the proposed new arena deal was all but squashed by the Maloofs, the Kings’ owners. “Not as long as the Maloofs own the team, because I won’t spend my money there any more,” Wolf said. “I’m done with the Maloofs until they sell the team. I’m absolutely furious with what’s going on – a lot of fans are. I’m shaking, I’m so mad.”

…Another fan who won’t return is Dorothy Allen, a 68-year-old mother of four and grandmother of six who lives in Rancho Cordova. Allen, a retired elementary school teacher, said she’s been a Kings season-ticket holder since the franchise moved from Kansas City in 1985. She said her family has “invested tens of thousands of dollars and even more emotion” into the Kings.And Allen is fed up.“I’m beyond astonished and disgusted with what’s happened,” Allen said. “I don’t know if this city, this mayor, these fans can trust the Maloofs anymore. Can we trust what they say? This city deserves a better product and maybe better owners.”

George Maloof, the biggest asshole of the bunch and the brother who most voiced his dislike of Sacramento—the brother who first approached Anaheim and then pushed the rest of the family to announce their move last year—wants Mayor Johnson “removed from the arena negotiations“.

What negoiations does he believe there are? Does he believe anyone in Sacramento is willing to negotiate with that family???

“I don’t think I’d want to negotiate with the mayor,” Maloof told USA TODAY Sports on Saturday. “Maybe there’s someone else that I’d feel more comfortable with.“We’re disappointed in comments made by the mayor that we feel were shots to us that were unfair and not truthful.”Dude? Really?? Really??? Get outta my face with that shit.Oh, wait a minute. Let me get my pump action—I wanna negotiate with your ass.More here from USA Today.

Marcos Breton: Arena plan was worth the fight, but it’s time to move on. “What now, Sacramento?The owners of the Kings have tanked a proposal to build a downtown arena that both the NBA and AEG, the Los Angeles-based arena operators, thought was a good deal.The Maloofs trashed our community in the process, and now the NBA is washing its hands and walking away. The league won’t force one of its owners to sell a team no matter how unsuccessful the franchise. It’s game over. ”

Evans is questioning his roleand says he is unsure with the changge from PG to SF. But does it have anything to do with all of the uncertainty this year? The lockout. The first coach and his problems with Cousins. The coiaching change. The position change. The arena on off on…and now off. The owners Magoofs.as fans, politicians and businessmen are out for their heads.

“Despite the collapse of the city’s arena plan, the Maloof family insists it has no interest in leaving Sacramento.But will Sacramento still have the Maloofs? Stunned fans are contemplating whether to remain loyal to the franchise. Political leaders are lashing out at the Maloofs. Corporate sponsors are taking stock of their support for the team.“Once again,” said Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, “the Maloofs have turned their back on a deal and shown their contempt for Sacramento.”

I do not know what is more incredibly stunning. That the Maloofs believe their dribble drabble. Or that they expect Sacramento to believe it.

More than 16,000 fans came out to nearly fill the arena and watch the Kings win a tough game with 3.4 seconds lefton the clock. When a home streak of sell-outs was on the line the NBA may have counted this one as a sell-out. The fans are certainly unhappywith the antics of the Maloofs and the current status of the new arena.

But Sacramento fans mostly want to see good, hard basketball. They understand and love the game. And they love the Kings.

The Maloofs usually watch the games from their courtside seats when they are in town. Last night they werre here, but they watched the team behind shatterproof (ulletproof??) lass in their luxury box. They did not mingle as they usually do. They were not part of the crowd. Fans could not hear them cheer.

April 16th:

“Strange,” is the way Kings fan and Here We Stay activist Kevin Fippin described his mood, the day the Kings put a seven-game losing streak to rest with a second-half comeback that beat the Portland Trail Blazers,104-103.“I honestly don’t know how to feel at the moment,” the 31-year-old Fippin said. “I’m still trying to figure it out.”……fans didn’t know how to feel, either, or what to think. Some had predictions. Some took verbal shots at the owners – the Maloof brothers, who watched the game out of public view, in their private suite instead of their floor seats.Some said, hey, it was great to be at the game Sunday, great to be a fan for the past quarter of a century. But if no deal gets done, they said, and the Kings wind up playing for some other fans in some other town, it doesn’t mean they’ll be breaking out the cyanide…….”Nobody seems too happy,” said Chris Keefer, 34, of Grass Valley.“It seems like everybody’s looking for some way to protest. I’m here to protest, but I don’t know how to.”……Art Mayorena of Plumas Lake …tipped beers in the parking lot with a couple of pals from Reno. He found the events of recent days “a little disheartening.” He blamed the Maloofs for the uncertainty.”If you agreed on something, stick with it,” Maytorena said. “It sounds more and more like they don’t want the team here. So the mood is definitely lowered, as far as excitement. I think that’s pretty much the feeling for the whole area.”All Maria Oliver of Antelope wants is a commitment.“You want to get full into it, to be a fan,” the youth correctional counselor said. “Then you’re waiting to see what’s going to happen. You’re just kind of like on the edge: Are they going to leave or are they going to stay? It’s kind of disappointing for the fans, them not making a decision.”Mayor Johnson says“This is NOT over!”. Hegave no clues as to what the next steps may be but again stated that neither the fans nor the City will give up on a new arena for the Kings.He isn’t convinced that the Magoofs want to stay in Sacramento despite their inssistence that they plan to remain here. He explained that “They told me in New Yorkthat they can change their mind.””(The Mayor) reiterated that the city wouldn’t put up any money to renovate outdated Power Balance Pavilion, an idea floated by the Maloofs late last week at the NBA owners’ meetings in New York.Asked if he continues to support the team on the court, Johnson said he plans to be at Friday’s game, where former Cincinnati Royal great Oscar Robertson is being honored. The Kings used to be the Royals.

The Magoofs, at least George, backed off that plan on Sunday kind of saying the ssame “oh we change our minds” story.

“The Kings will stay put in Sacramento for next season – and the team’s owners, the Maloofs, insist they’re committed to finding a way to remain in town long-term.

An investment group with deep pockets said it’s interested in keeping the downtown arena deal alive.

But other cities beckon.

An official with the Honda Center in Anaheim, which nearly lured the Kings away last spring, said he wouldn’t be surprised if the courtship were to resume. Seattle indicated it remains interested in the team…

…The sniping over the failed project continued late Monday, when the city released an email from its consultant, Dan Barrett, to a Maloof attorney, responding to a list of objections to the arena deal the family gave the city Friday.

Barrett said the issues raised had already been “discussed and negotiated for several months” and flatly rejected by the city.

The arena idea itself might not be completely dead. One of the groups planning to bid on the city’s parking garages – a deal that could have raised $230 million for the arena – said Monday that it’s interested in reviving the project.

So then is it an easy move for the Kins to jump to Anaheim? Or to Seattle?

After all, now they have shown everyone that Sacramento cannot build an arena right? And that was the one thing the NBA said had to happen for the Maloofs to receive approval to move. Right?

Well….kind of. One problem the Maloofs have is that the City showed to the NBAs satisfaction that we CAN build an arena. And that we WANT to build an arena. It is the Maloofs who said no. That was not what they NBA and the other owners said must happen for the Maloofs to get their approval to move.

“If the Maloofs do want to move the Kings, it may not be that easy. The NBA’s window for relocation requests for 2012-13 has already closed. Beyond that, they would need majority approval from fellow NBA owners and likely would face the same objections they did last year if they try to move to Anaheim. That would put three teams in Southern California and infuriate the owners of the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers.

“I don’t think the Kings are going anyplace but back to the bargaining table if they’re intelligent,” said consultant Andy Dolich, a former executive with the Memphis Grizzlies and other NBA teams.

The NBA would like the Kings to stay put. A year ago, Commissioner David Stern said the league would support a relocation if an arena deal weren’t in place by now. But when asked Friday about the possibility of the team moving, he was noncommittal.”

“Even for those with no interest in the Kings, let alone an arena, the Maloofs’ long history of duplicity, excess baggage and business bungling is common grist. I asked last week: If these people are as odious and perfidious as their past behavior has demonstrated, as countless fans have decried for years, why would anyone want to bargain with them based solely on trust?

“With the Sacramento Kings out of the city’s arena equation, Mayor Kevin Johnson wants the city to spend the next two to three weeks exploring building a new downtown sports arena, “with or without an anchor tenant.”At a morning press briefing at City Hall, the mayor said that facility might be a scaled-down version of the $391 million facility initially proposed for the Sacramento Kings. He said it could be designed to accommodate expansions.

After the Arena debacle orchestrated by the Kins owners, the Maloof family (AKA: the “MaGoofs”) those same owners areg giving away “free tickets” for the Kings home game on Wednesday, April 18th.

Team management insists that the Kings have done this type of give-away “many times” before. I haven’t heard of it.

They say only six fans have cancelled season tickets while 10 new season ticket packages have been sold since the Maloofs blew up the arena deal. That’s not what I hear on Twitter or in the blogs or even in the news.

Marcos Breton says the the deal for the new arena. Even though they would only contribute $73million of the total nearly $400million cost. And of the $73 million $67 million would come from the NBA. Heck, even I could afford that. It’s $7 Mil for a $400 Mil NBA arena. What’s not to like? Unless you cannot manage your business affirs. Unless you had to sell the amily beer distributorship and pretty much sell the hottest casino in the world.And have mismanaged one of the top NBA products in the leaue into oblivion.

“It’s all a smoke screen to cover up the fact that they can’t make a deal because they don’t have the money.That’s why the Maloof brothers, owners of the Kings, are paying an economist, lawyers, media flacks and other hangers-on to trash Sacramento.They are saying Sacramentocan’t afford a downtown arena, when in truth the Maloofs can’t afford it.”

“On the railyard, where the arena would have been built, John Shirey said “this setback does not mean we’re giving up on” that site. He called it the “largest and maybe the best infill (development) opportunity anywhere in the country.”

“That still has great potential for us,” he said.

City staff will also look at how they can “capitalize on the potential of the Natomas property” near Power Balance, he said.”

Read more at the above link.

April 19th;

Mayor Johnson is right. I don’t agree with him all that often, but he is right in this. Keep the arena dream alive. Continue to work toward building the arena even if we get to a point it has to be scaled down. Begin to determine what Sacramento will do with the current Arena and land if the Kings leave. Determine when and how Sacramento will recoup the tenss of millions of dollars that the maloof family already owe to Sacramento. Truth is the family owes Sacramento about as much as they would have contribbuted to the new Arena.

Make them pay and then Sacramento has all the money we need to build the arena!! Not going to happen quite that easily, but you get my point….

We have ways and opportunities to get this done. Even if the Maloofs are able to pack up and leave town a new arena in the railyards will bring in businesses and restaurants not to mention the non-basketball uses for the building. The Mayor wants to get a NHL team. I’m not a hockey fan but I fully support that effort bbecause i understand the positive aspects of getting another pro team for Sacramento. HUGE!

Go HERE and voter YES to continue to work town building a new arena in the railyard.

This is just a Sacramento Bee poll, it is NOT a vote that they City must follow.

Need something to make you feel a little better about the Kings?Right now all this losing has the Kings picking in the Top 5 in the 2012 NBA Draft. (Dare we dream for #1??).

Here is the latest mock draft with the Kings getting a Quality Big with the #4 pick. I like this pick!

We should have asked the Big O to represent us, but instead it is Adrienne Maloof who will represent the Kings at the 2012 Draft Lottery. She’s a basketball wizard, and who that is actually from Sacramento would have anything to do with them???

April 20th:

The Maloofs meet with Season ticket holders, at the suite and business owner level, to try to salvage ticket sales and with those 25 businessmen who petitioned the NBA to force a sale of the team. Don’t expect any of those meetings to go so well.

“After a week of trading accusations about the collapse of the arena project, the mayor arrived at the Palms Casino, whose chairman is Kings co-owner George Maloof.A Maloof spokesman confirmed the meeting. Eric Rose said the mayor showed up this afternoon unannounced at the Palms Hotel. “George graciously accepted his meeting,” Rose said. “George never seemed to be the “gracious” type to me.But the Maloofs (the NBA Maloofs) refused to talk to the Mayortonight at the game or during the recognition for Oscar Robertson. “…The mayor on Thursday told News10 he plans to be at the game at Power Balance Pavilion tonight and may visit a few minutes with the team owners. Team spokesman Eric Rose, however, told The Bee the Maloofs have no intention of having a discussion.“They’ll shake his hand, welcome him like every other fan…”

But the important Kings thing today, in fact for the entire week is that finally the Kings will retire the number of the Big “O”and hang the jersey of Oscar Robertson where it belongs. From the rafters of Arco arena aka…..

The giant sports arena operator AEG, so famous and just a money making machine was to operate the new Sacramento arena. AEG believed, and still believes, that everyone involved would make millions. The Maloofs, those great shakes o’ business fellows that they are, don’t ” trust the AEG numbers“. Read about it here. They don’t like Sacramento. They don’t like AEG. They are such frigging idiots.

During halftime of the OKC game, honoring the Big “O” (my favorite King) KJ and the MaGoofssmile as Johnson comes on the floor with handshakes all around.

“I can’t look at the Maloofs and their family as part of the problem; they have to be viewed as part of the solution,” Johnson said during a courtside news conference at halftime of the Kings game Fridayevening at Power Balance Pavilion. “I think we both walked away feeling very good.”

The challenge is that the Maloof’s ARE part of the problem. In fact, the Maloofs are THE problem. But the Maloof’s must be part of the solution. Whether the solution is a new agreement, or new owners, or a move out of Sacramento. It starts with the Maloofs.

“While stopping short of saying the sides would reopen arena negotiations, Johnson’s office said the mayor and George Maloof agreed to have a follow-up conversation early next week.

Johnson said he received important insight from George Maloof as to why the family pulled out of the deal.

“I always felt we had a deal,” the mayor said. “They felt they had a different scenario. They felt the (revenue) numbers were aggressive for AEG (the planned arena operator) and the NBA,and those were all things he told me to my face.”..

Remember Mayor. There is no deal with the Maloofs until they sign the papers.

This Blog doesn’t contain much basketball info about the Kings lately. Why?

Well, (1) they have played so very poorly. And DMC gets his 1th Technical Foul on Sunday. Cousins wasn’t sure why (he went face to face with Bismack Biyombbo who was also called for a Tech.

That was nothing compared to Tech #12 when Cousins had been ejected from the game and then said to the ref “Stop being a fan”. A fan? And that’s a foul? A technical?

and (2) there is so much off the court drama like:

A former Sacramento City Councilman files a very large Public Records Act (PRA) request seeking any and all information about communications between the City and the Kings, and the company that runs Anaheim’s Honda Center, the economist hired by the Maloof’s who has been the lead for them on rejecting the Arena agreement and several other parties.

The councilman, a former police officer and a businessman, Robbbie Waters, seems to be trying to determine relationships between Anaheim and everyone else (??) Hard to tell with Waters. This could get interesting. I’m not sure who he has to read all the paper he eventually gets.

This comes after the Kings recently filed multiple PRA requests on the city of Sacramento and 53 other parties.

April 26th:

Kings season ticket holders are torn, many are unure what they will do. Unhappy with the owners, unsure about the teams future, but loving their Kings—they do not know what they will do.

Renew their season tickets? Or let them go??

“The curtain closes tonight on a tumultuous season with drama still unfolding. Upset by the team’s unwillingness to sign an arena deal to secure its future in Sacramento,some vocal season ticket holders are talking about canceling purchases for next season, some sponsors are rethinking contracts, and civic leaders are calling for the Maloofs to sell…“

…Mayor Johnson continues toi try to reach agreement with the Maloofs. Tonight in a 13th hour meeting he will once again try to find common ground on an arena deal that he and the city and the NBA thought was already agreed to.

“That effort could pivot on events today. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnsonwill meet with team owners in a 13th-hour push to keep his downtown arena dream alive. The meeting is expected to last for several hours. The mayor said he wants to keep communication open, but expressed more hope than confidence.“I don’t think a whole lot has changed, other than us agreeing to have one more conversation,” he said Tuesday.Team co-owner George Maloofsaid little as well. “We’re going to do the best we can, try to get something done.”

God this season has been short. It ends tonight? The last game?

God this season has been long. The Maloofs? No Arena? Team can’t win in April, the final month of the season? Mostly at home? All of this drama.

And mostly the unending arena screw. Not ust this one.

The last six years of arena screws for the fans and the residents of Sacramento.

If I had season tickets I am not sure what I would do.

I would want to rip them up and throw them in the Maloof’s face. I would want to piss on the tickets because that is what the maloof’s have done to me.

I would not want to give up on the team. This team has a good young core. This team will have a good chance at a quality draft. This team has a good oung coach. This team has the opportunity to become good again. This team has salar space to sign a big-time Free Agent. Or two!!

After six ears of mismanagement by the MaGoofs.

What do I do? Can somebody help me??

…the Kings face a backlash from long-time fans such as Mark Drobny, an attorney who estimates he has spent $600,000 on Kings tickets over the past 26 years. He is canceling his season ticket purchase, saying the Kings persuaded him to re-up just days before the Maloofs announced in New Yorkthey were backing out of the arena deal.

“I don’t believe they have money to put a quality team on the floor,” he said. “I don’t believe they are going to sign a big free agent. They are stuck here for one more year, trying to put a happy face on the thing.

Johnson sas that the group will meet again on Frida morning continuing their attempt to work out a new deal on a Kings arena in Sacramento.

“I would categorize the meeting as productive,” the mayor said afterward. He said he believes the Maloof family felt the same way.

Johnson gave out very few details, other than to say the city is still holding fast to the “term sheet” that was negotiated in late February in Orlando. The Maloofs have objected to several key points in the term sheet – points they say they never agreed to.

“We’ve heard their perspective,” Johnson told reporters at City Hall. “Our understanding…was enhanced by the meetings.”

He said the Maloofs still “want a deal downtown.”

I say: I am glad everone is meeting rather than just cancelling any & all attemptss, but do not trust them Mr Maor. Do not trust them.

Personally I think it is the Maloof’s way to tell the NBA “Gee…..we tried guys. We tried.”

They finished the season with a win and it was a win against a talented team. A team they struggle against. The Kings went 2-1 this yea ragainst the Lakers the first time they took the season since 2004-05.

The Arena deal is dead—AGAIN.

The Maloofs have refused to sign on to a new arena in downtown Sacramento for the second time this month!!!

It doesn’t surprise me. I wonder if Mayor Johnson was surprised??? Nah. No way.

“The mayor said the Maloofs balked at providing “adequate” collateral on a refinanced loan to replace the $67 million in debt the family has with the city.Also, the team would not agree to a 30-year commitment to Sacramento, he said.

Johnson said the city would now shift its focus to a “Plan B” to build a downtown sports arena without the Kings.”

“Maloof spokesman Eric Rose said in a statement: “The Kings will continue the operations of the organization and building on the franchise’s young nucleus of players.” What the fuck does that mean???

“We had come up with a scenario where the Kings could move into the building without putting a dollar of cash down,” Commissioner David Sternsaid in a phone interview with The Bee. “We were not attempting to induce them to make a deal that would be unprofitable for them.”

What can the Maloofs be thinking when the whole world knows the are making the wrong decision. The very broke family would not have to “put a dollar down”. How much clearer can Stern be?

And the league in’t giving the maloofs any money to rehab Power Balance Pavilion (Arco Arena) as they keep saying they want to do.

“Everything now is back to square one,” Stern said. “There is no building downtown. There is no league subsidy. There is no league loan.”

Again, how much clearer can Stern be? He is unhappy. If you are a NBA owner you do not want to make Stern so unhappy in public. Maybe if you are a union official, but not if you are a NBA owner.

Stern also warned the Maloofs that they are making a mistake sayin g the will use revenue-sharing money from the NBA under the new contract to rehab the old arena or any of their other plans for that money.

“I think that is a mistaken calculation by them,” Stern said. “I don’t think that is what the revenue sharing is meant for.”

Stern just took the Maloofs out to the woodshed and pulled their pants down. In public. Let everyone watch. I just don’t know what effect it will have. As a fan we are too far removed from what is actually going on here.

Jason Jones details the off-season workthat the Kings must do and offensive questions that they must answer IF they want to improve. Excellent article and right on as always. I’m just not sure thaat the owners want to commit the money required to improve the team. The Kings have piss-poor ping-pong ball luck. They do as well as possible with their 6th or 7th pick, given that it’s a poor spot to select and ex[ect a top-flight rookie.

Of course last year is hard to explain at all. The trade to get a lowerr lotter selection? And pick a player no one was going to pick anway. And take back a player and a contract thaat choked the team on offense and on defense.

But Jones lays it all out well player by player explaining what each must do in the off-season to improve individually and help their team.

“There also will be a lot of focus on the ownership. With the Kings expected to be about $15 million under the salary cap, is the team willing to spend to lure talent to Sacramento. Or will it continue to have the lowest payroll in the NBAfor the next few years before deciding whether to pay Cousins and Evans a lot?”

My quess? Poor luck in the ping-pong world. Petrie will do his homework and pick the best possible player (what he is given to work with and what orders he is given are a different issue) the Maloofs will not pay for any quality Free Agents, the kings cannot attract any quality Free Agents, this year they may not even be able or willing to hang on to their own guys. Is that a miserable outlook?? Yep. It is the owners. It has been the owners each year for the last six losing years with no important, quality.

Kings mired in a Maloofs-vs.-Sacramento stalemate. Sacramento and its Kings are locked in a stalemate that could take months – or years – to resolve.

Bottom line: The city and the team are stuck in an unhappy marriage.

And the other NBA ” is disenchanted with the Kings’ owners, the Maloofs.

Geoff Petrie is still with the Sacramento Kings. He may wish that he wasn’t, but he remains a King.

Imagine being a player on this team with the year it has had. On Twitter I recently called it torturous.

Who the hell would they get to replace Petrie? Besides the question who is better than Petrie. Who the hell would fall off that cliff?

So will Petrie become the GM for Portland? Will Sacramento be without a GM just as the 2012 Lottery period heats up?

“Joe Maloof told SI (Sports Illustrated).com Portland had not requested permission to speak to Petrie (which would be required because he is under contract through next season) but added the team would not “hold”Petrie back if there was another offer job he chose to pursue.”

First, some of the signatures of businessmen on letter to the NBA were “proxy” signatures? And now the Sacramentans have some level of “misgiving” about seeing their naes on the letter??

And what’s worse is that “Chris Lehane, head of the mayor’s Think Big Sacramento arena advocacy group, responded Monday evening with a letter to the U.S. Attorney General asking it to investigate whether the Kings are violating any laws by harassing and intimidating “citizens of the region who have expressed concerns about the Maloof family’s stewardship of the Kings.”

MaGoofs and U.S. Attorney General investigations just seem to fit though huh??

Only a couple of people had “misgivings”.

Stan Lukowicz, one of the businessman whose name was signed for him, told the Bee Monday he has no problem with what happened.

“I feel they had my blessing to do that,” said Lukowicz of Capital City Loan & Jewelry.

“Coach Keith Smart plans to bring back assistants Jim Eyen, Alex English and Bobby Jackson.Only English was hired after Smart replaced Paul Westphal, who was fired Jan(uary) 5(, 2012).”Nice decision Coach. These guys did as well as possible last season, they are good staff and with one year under their collective belt, things should ggo better.

May 21st:

Mayor Johnson plans a big fundraiser in Los Angeles as he runs for re-election in Sacramento. Why in L.A.? Well. because it will be held at one of the entertainment jewels of A.E.G., the company that had agreed to operate the new Sacramento Arena (until the Maloofs tripped over their tongues) AND A.E.G. will be one of the big-time co-hosts of the event.

Still, it is more than just a bit strange to me that a Mayor in the state’s capitol city will have his big fundraiser in another city. Of course I wouldn’t be attending here. Or there. Or anywhere.

DeMarcus Cousins is named to the USA Select Team “Kings center DeMarcus Cousins is among 13 players named to the USA Select Team that will train against at will train against the 2012 USA Basketball Men’s National Team during its July 6-12 training camp in Las Vegas.

The USA Select Team will not only train against the US Olympic Team for 2012 but will form the nucleus of plays in contention for the next Olympics in four years. First you have to expect Cousins and the other Select Team players will have a great shot at the World Championships Team for the U.S.A. 2 years from now, and then Cousins should be the anchor at Center for the U.S. as we build our next Olympic Team. Way to go DMC!